Red Sands
by Orpheus Kidwell
Summary: A mistake in the sealing leaves Kushina trapped with the Nine-Tails. Shiyore, the resulting entity of this accident, does her best to protect her "older brother". Things start looking up when a passing puppetmaster sees promise in the jinchuuriki and the Elemental Nations will never be the same.
1. Chapter I

**Red Sands**

**And, here we are!**

**This is a bit different, as this is not an archive. I actually _do _intend on continuing this one at some point in the near future, so hooray for that. Besides that, go ahead and enjoy.**

**Chapter I**

**[Konohagakure – Five Years after the Kyuubi Attack]**

"Get back here you brat!" Naruto ignored the cry from the vendor as he ran away, a single apple in his hand while he ran as fast as his feet would take him. He wove through anyone in front of him and never looked behind him as hunger guided his actions. Fueled by adrenaline and fear of being caught, he went even faster.

** "Turn right…" **Without thinking, he obeyed the Voice. It had helped him more than a few times. If not for the Voice he would have been caught during some of his attempts to have food or actual clothing. Such as what he currently wore. He had on a red shirt with the same blue spiral symbol the Jounin uniforms had, a pair of red shorts and wore a black cloak to keep out the mid-October chill. As his crimson hair slightly obscured the vision of his violet eyes, Naruto moved it out of the way with his free hand.

** "The trash…" **Naruto didn't even hesitate to follow the instructions as he saw multiple trash cans and climbed atop one of the full ones, using it to gain enough height to climb onto a low overhang one of the shops had. His next target was the roof itself. Placing the apple in his mouth, he jumped up and grabbed it, pulling himself up with a little trouble but rolling onto his back as he did so.

Not a second later, he could hear the fruit vendor come down the alley he was in not a moment ago and held his breath. "Damn brat disappeared…" He muttered angrily. "I'll find you, you hear me! You'll learn not to steal if it's the last thing I do!" As the man left, Naruto let out a sigh of relief and bit into the apple.

"I hope you're enjoying yourself." Naruto jumped up, looking around until he spotted someone standing and looking down at him. The woman herself was tall, standing even above the loud man who wore green spandex shouting about youth if Naruto had to guess. She also had red hair the same shade as his own, flowing long and down past even her waist. A pair of crimson orbs with slit pupils stared right into his, freezing him where he stood.

She wore a cloak that obscured the rest of her body lined with what appeared to be red fur, though her hands – tipped with five long, sharp nails the color of dried blood – and bare feet were visible. The most defining trait to this woman, however, was that she had nine, flowing fox tails swishing behind her back at seemingly random intervals. Her full lips rose into a toothy smirk as she saw him realize who – _what_ – she was. Her ivory flesh contrasted deeply with the dark look of glee in her eyes. "Do you realize what the voice was this whole time now?" She asked in an almost playful manner, like a sister who had pranked her younger brother.

"You're... the... Kyuubi?" Naruto asked between frightened gasps. He had heard more than a few frightening tales of just what the Kyuubi could do. He thought that they were just stories that the adults used to scare the kids. Yet, the very being they spoke of was not only standing before him, but admitted that she had been whispering in his mind since he could remember.

"Calm yourself, I'm not going to eat you, or whatever it is those crackpot villagers have put in your mind. Honestly… take the form of a gigantic monster fox a few times and everyone thinks that you're a man eater…" She sighed. "Stand, for Sage's sake. It's not exactly in my nature to look down my nose at someone prostrate in front of me. I do have honor, unlike those that live here."

Naruto slowly stood up, muscles tense as if to run but the woman didn't try anything. "How did you get here…?" Naruto asked, causing the kitsune to chuckle but nodded.

"Well, you're pretty young but I suppose I can explain that to you. You see, when a daddy sage and a mommy deranged princess turned demon hate each other very much…"

"I meant here, on this roof with me." Naruto interrupted. Even as young as he was, he overheard some of the older boys at the orphanage – and even some girls – talk about things he slowly realized he shouldn't have overheard. Sometimes, he was a bit too smart for his own good.

The Kyuubi paused as if figuring that out and grinned. "Of course that's what you meant! Well, _that _particular story starts five years ago today, on the day you were born, Naruto-chan." The redhead widened his eyes slightly.

"How do you know my name? And what started when I was born?" Naruto demanded.

"Well, the second I'll explain later, but I know your name because of a certain hot-headed kunoichi and her clan messing with me in ways that never should have happened. I suppose introductions are in order though. You _could _keep calling me Kyuubi, but that's more of a title. It would be like me calling you Orphan all the time. Would you like that?" Slowly, Naruto shook his head. "Well, my true, Sage-given name is Shiyore."

"How did you get here though?" Naruto asked. "You said something about the day I was born?" Shiyore nodded as suddenly a chair appeared under her, she crossed her legs and a book fell into her lap. Placing a pair of reading glasses on, she coughed into her hand.

"Five years ago, to the day, this village was the strongest in the Elemental Nations and nothing could stop it. The citizens grew cocky knowing that, until the night of October 10…"

**[Reverse Timeskip – Five Years Ago]**

"Minato, the seal is brea-AGH! It's breaking!" Kushina breathed out heavily as she breathed heavily, gripping tightly into the railing on either side of the hospital bed she lay in. Kushina was a fair-skinned woman with silky, red hair that fell loosely to her waist and shining, violet eyes. She was adorned in a hospital gown, legs spread and in the process of childbirth.

"Just focus on Naruto, Kushina. I've got the seal, don't worry!" Minato replied. He had three-inch spikes of sun-golden hair and a pair of cerulean orbs for eyes scrunched in worry. He happened to be wearing a Konoha Jounin uniform and his signature white trench coat with flames licking the edges and 'Fourth Hokage' in kanji down the back.

Minato kept his concentration as well as he could with Kushina's pained and raspy breathing and periodic rants at him to "Keep the seal from breaking, Minato!" or "Don't do that! You'll break it!" Those were, quite honestly, the hardest and longest minutes of his entire life.

"Congratulations, you've got a healthy, baby boy!" A brunette, brown-eyed woman in her late 50's said with an aged smile as she held a crying red-headed infant with faint, whisker-like birthmarks on either cheek. When he opened his eyes, they were a deep violet, darker than Kushina's.

"L-let me hold him, Biwako-san…" Kushina begged of the nurse, who complied and migrated the boy to his mother's arms. "Oh, you're so handsome, Naruto-chan… you'll make all the girls go wild, I can already tell…" Minato smiled to Kushina, stepping beside her and placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Maybe one of those girls will be half as great as Kushi-chan… then you'll have to marry her. Someone like that only comes once a lifetime." The Yondaime Hokage couldn't help the tears welling up in his eyes. "I can't believe we finally have a family of our own, Kushi-chan…"

"Minato…" Whatever Kushina was about to say was silenced by the strangled cry of Biwako before she collapsed to the floor, now nothing more than a lifeless heap of flesh and blood. Both of the ninja looked over to see the perpetrator that invaded this secure room somehow.

He wore a black cloak, hood up and his face covered by a white mask with a single eyehole to see through. Around either hand were metal bands that were connected by a thin chainwhip behind the man's back. In his right hand, the masked man held a kunai that disappeared into his robe's sleeve. He stepped over the woman's body as if she was in his way before stopping in front of the couple.

"Who are you?" Minato demanded, two of his signature kunai appearing in his hand as he took a stance. "How did you get in here?"

The masked man didn't answer, but instead rushed forward to the couple. Minato reacted on instinct and met the man in the middle of the room, quickly teleporting both of them to a different location away from the room.

Kushina held Naruto, hating that she couldn't move to help them in her current condition. Gritting her teeth, she decided to do what she could and closed her eyes, her vision changing as she entered her mindscape. Looking up at a large construct she narrowed her eyes.

On a large globe of flowing liquid an immense creature was chained up and pinned to it with several stakes through its hands, tails and even its abdomen. The titanic creature itself looked very much like a fox with two, long ears and almost human-like fingers on each hand with claws longer than she was tall tipping each of those fingers. A pair of burning red eyes with slit pupils glared down at her as the snout of the creature turned into what she assumed was a snarl. "What do you want, woman? Are you here to torment me some more with your 'love' talk? Or perhaps you want stab me with another shaft? Maybe go for my head this time?"

"I'm going to give you a deal, Kyuubi" Kushina said evenly. Within her mind she was perfectly healthy and able to do anything she could before she was pregnant. She just needed that freedom outside her mindscape as well. "I'll change your seal to a cage and you never have to deal with this seal again, no matter who the host is."

The titanic fox-like being narrowed its eyes at her. "What sort of deal? You've never wanted anything like this before…" The redhead smiled, seeing she had piqued the creature's interest.

"I want some of your chakra so that I can help Minato against whatever this threat is. He attacked while I was in birth. It could be a coincidence, but I think whoever this person is has a goal involving you. It's my job to both guard the village against you and to also guard you from other villages. That's what a jinchuuriki does. So, help me and I'll free your constraints a little and give you a cage instead of the Great Shackles of Heaven. Do we have a deal?" The Kyuubi glared but nodded.

"You can have some of my chakra, ningen. You must be in a truly desperate state to want some of it though. You've never once wanted to tap into it before." Kushina frowned but didn't say anything. A chain sprouted from her back and shot right for the beast, impaling its stomach mercilessly. The Kyuubi growled in pain but was shocked into silence as the normally golden chains turned a bright red, the chakra tainted with its hatred being pulled to Kushina and healing her wounds and fatigue of childbirth after being purified with her own, blue chakra.

The chain was, by this point, blue on Kushina's end, red on the Kyuubi's and purple where they met. The two types of chakra fought for dominance until the pure chakra from the Uzumaki overpowered the Kyuubi's crimson youki, purifying the chakra even as it came out of the nine-tailed fox. Around the Kyuubi's stomach, it even glowed blue, showing her chakra had seeped into its body before the chain dissolved. "That should be enough." Kushina said to herself as the constraints on the Kyuubi dissolved and reformed themselves into a cage that ascended far above sight before the beast could catch its breath.

Kushina opened her eyes again, holding Naruto close to her with a smile as she stood out of bed. "Now that that's done, maybe I can do some damage if the need arises. But I have to make sure to keep you safe, Naruto-chan… Minato-kun can handle himself if it comes down to it."

She could not take even a single step before the masked man appeared once again before her and his single eye showed something Kushina knew very well. "You're an Uchiha…" Kushina mumbled even as the Sharingan he wielded spun very fast, signifying he was probably trying to cast a genjutsu. Gathering her enormous chakra, Kushina readied herself to break any illusion he placed her under.

It was for naught as her focus was too split to understand his true motive. Before she could blink, he had warped in front of her, a sealing tag placed over her stomach and activated. Even if she had the Kyuubi's purified chakra running though her, there was only so much she could do with her mentally exhausted state.

When the seal did activate, the man warped away again, Minato appearing a few seconds after to see Kushina on her knees, holding Naruto close to her chest. The Yondaime Hokage quickly rushed to her side. "Kushi-chan, what happened!" Minato begged to know.

"Mask… released the seal…" Kushina barely breathed out. If not for taking a large amount of chakra from the Kyuubi, she had no idea if she would be able to even talk that much. Feeling her chakra move through her body, she slowly stood, holding Naruto closer as she looked out the window where a titanic kitsune with nine tails causing destruction each time they swayed and an evil grin looking down on the village that had imprisoned it for a century. "Minato-kun… it has to be stopped…"

Minato widened his eyes considerably. He had not anticipated that _this _was the goal of the man behind the mask. He assumed he was a shinobi of another village here to steal the heir to the Namikaze and Uzumaki bloodline. This was infinitely worse for the village. A single glance at Kushina and he knew she wouldn't have the strength or life force to hold the bijuu a second time. She could probably survive in her state given her enormous – even among the Uzumaki – life force if they used someone else, though. "Kushina… you know what has to be done."

The redhead Uzumaki matriarch held her newborn son gently but securely as she looked down at his whiskered face. It was not something she wanted to ever happen. She was supposed to hold the Nine Tails for her entire life so her children could be spared. Maybe even her grandchildren as well, just as Mito-sama did before her. This… masked man had ruined it completely. He had released her of her burden but given her one infinitely harder to bear. She had to… she would have to assign her former fate to that of her newborn child. At least she knew what she was getting into when she became a jinchuuriki. Naruto-chan would be forced into the life as an innocent soul, never able to know normalcy that other children would take for granted.

"I don't like it Minato-kun… we shouldn't force him to do it… it's not fair…" She closed her eyes, gently rocking her baby boy. "He's not even ten minutes old. That's a fate far worse than any torture your ANBU could come up with and you're forcing it on our son!" She glared at the Hokage, all of her frustration and anger at the situation being firmly placed on her husband.

The blonde understood her emotions. Well, he understood them as well as any non-jinchuuriki could. He showed no anger, no frustration and nothing but care for her as he laid a hand on her shoulder, looking in her eyes. "Kushina-chan, do not worry. I know the life of a jinchuuriki is hard, but he will surely be seen as a hero to everyone this night. I am confident in the people of my village being competent enough to understand just the sacrifice he is making."

Kushina widened her eyes and pushed him away. "No! They can't know what he is! You don't understand, Minato-kun! Normal humans could never understand a jinchuuriki. What humans don't understand, they begin to fear. Fear turns into hatred. They must _not _know that Naruto is a jinchuuriki! You have to promise me that! I'll hate you forever if you don't!"

Minato was taken aback at her words. Surely she had more faith in her fellow man, right? These were the people she lived with and worked with in the village. She held that much distrust for them? Well… he did want people to see his son as a hero, but he was forcing such a horrible burden on the boy against Kushina's wishes… "I'll promise you that… but I have to act quickly or more people will die."

Kushina looked down at Naruto one more time before slowly handing him over to Minato. "Give me three of your kunai. I may not have mastered it yet, but I can use the Hiraishin well enough for one jump. I'll restrain it and then get one of these close enough to the Kyuubi for you." Minato smiled at her, nodding once as he handed her a trio of his infamous tri-pronged kunai.

Feeling better as the chakra coursed through her system and healed her fatigue, Kushina opened the window. Jumping out the window as she had so often done as a teenager whenever she ended up at the hospital, she landed on a roof across from the hospital and about five meters below. Jumping from roof to roof, she finally got close enough to the bijuu to see what carnage was unfolding.

Kushina had fought in the last war, so death was no new experience for her to witness. She had even been present for Minato's infamous massacre of Iwa shinobi. Nothing could possibly have prepared her for _this _however. It was utter… chaos.

Buildings were crushed, humans were mutilated with large holes in their bodies or turned into red paste on the ground from the sheer weight of the monster ransacking the village and fires spread through over a quarter of the village already from an unknown source. Tens of thousands of her fellow villagers were already lifeless from the creature's rampage. She had only just given it a little more freedom and then suddenly it was granted total emancipation. Hypothetically, where she had given Kyuubi an inch, the masked man gave him a mile.

With new resolve in mind, she took the first two kunai and threw them on opposite sides of the great beast while the last one she kept. Jumping to the floor, she quickly made her way in front of the bijuu, looking up at it. The beast obviously didn't see her yet. That worked to her advantage. Gathering her chakra and compressing it, she shot several chains not at the Kyuubi, but at the two kunai to either side.

When the constructs of her chakra hit the seal of each kunai, they reappeared at the other kunai before arcing up high and wrapping around the titanic fox. On the downward descent, they once more warped through the kunai and this time shot for the tails, constraining them. As she had before, Kushina channeled her unique and pure chakra through the legendary technique of her clan, giving them a bright, blue aura.

By the time the Kyuubi realized what was going on, it was crushed to the ground, completely immobile. Its murderous glare was centered right on the minuscule human that had imprisoned it all of her life. **"You! How dare you do this to me right after I get out! I won't be so easy to contain now that I remember the feeling of freedom!" **Deadly red chakra spread along the chains, tainting Kushina's own chakra. She glared at the beast, pulsing her own chakra as the chains sprouted deadly spikes along each link, stabbing into the furry monster.

"I will not allow you to bring any harm to my beloved family!" She shouted at the beast, the chains constricting around the Kyuubi further, each spike embedding and penetrating into the beast's 'flesh' to its full length. The enormous being growled in pain and tried to lash out and eat the woman who dared restrain it.

** "I will destroy you!" **It screamed at her, the thunderous echo actually causing the buildings and ground to shake with such force to simulate an earthquake. Tiles fell from the roofs, foundations caved in and windows shattered just from the Kyuubi's voice at such proximity. Kushina held her ground as the chained became completely blue, squashing any attempts at rebellion the Kyuubi's dark chakra might attempt.

Pulling the third kunai out, Kushina threw it high in the air above the Kyuubi. **"Summoning Jutsu: Food Cart Destroyer!" **A voice called out as an enormous cloud of smoke appeared. From the smoke, an enormous toad fell atop the fox. Minato stood atop its head, holding Naruto with black ink covering the infants body. The Fourth Hokage held the his son tenderly even as his free hand went through hundreds of one-handed seals.

** "Get off of me, you overgrown gecko!" **The Kyuubi demanded. The toad croaked in indignity and stomped on one of the beast's many tails.

** "Watch your tongue, you're in no position to make any commands you Furball. Just sit there quietly so you can be sealed up nice and tight." **The toad almost wore a grin at the concept, causing the Kyuubi to widen its eyes and thrash wildly.

"Gamabunta, I need to focus! Please do not rile up the Kyuubi!" He begged of the Toad. The monstrous amphibian sighed and unsheathed a sword from his back. In one motion, it pierced through the Kyuubi's spine, pinning the monster to the ground. "Thank you." On the last handseal, Minato jumped from atop Gamabunta's head in front of his wife, staring right at the Kyuubi.

** "Summoning Jutsu: Shiki Fujin!" **Minato called out. The Kyuubi widened its eyes as an apparition appeared behind Minato. The apparition wore a demonic mask with a blade between its lips and flowing robes over its body. Through Minato's and Naruto's body the apparition shoved its hand. The ethereal appendage finally reached the Kyuubi, grabbing hold of the bijuu. "Leave now Gamabunta! Any chakra touching the Kyuubi will be sealed with it!"

Hearing that, Gamabunta pulled out his blade and jumped up, disappearing in a cloud of smoke that blotted out the full moon for a moment. The Kyuubi let a grin slowly form on its lips. **"If I'm going to be sealed… it won't be alone!" **It shouted as both hands reached ever so slightly and held tightly onto the chains still connected to Kushina just as the ghastly hand reached the beast.

It was too late that Minato realized just what Kyuubi meant. He turned around to look at Kushina who seemed to be shocked. "I-is that the Shinigami?" She asked. Minato and Kushina, both being sealmasters in their own right understood the implications immediately. Only the Summoner and the target for sealing could see the apparition of the Death God and since Kushina didn't incite the technique…

Turning back at the grinning Kyuubi, Minato felt tears gathering in his eyes. He had been too rash… there must have been a different way to handle this… "I've killed my wife and cursed my son…" He whispered just before the Shinigami pulled Kyuubi, the chains and Kushina's chakra into Naruto. As Kushina dropped lifelessly to the floor, Minato could only look into the grinning face of the Shinigami.

"An eternity of nothingness trapped in your stomach is probably what I deserve for that anyways…" He said to the apparition. He knew there was a certain amount of time he had before the Shinigami trapped him, so Minato quickly noticed the corpse of a woman on the floor and walked to her, setting Naruto in her lifeless arms. "Be strong for your parents Naruto… I will not break my promise to Kushina-chan. You'll start as an orphan, just like me… I just hope you can do better after you find your own path.

"When the time comes you may need my help. I will do my best for you. I don't know how the Kyuubi and Kushi-chan both being absorbed will affect them, but I truly hope that it somehow protects you. I'm sorry for failing both of you. I had thought she would be able to raise you. I truly only want the best for you, my son." He could feel the cold grip of the Shinigami's fist clenching around his soul and jumped away from the infant.

"There's no connection between you and I so maybe you'll be placed in an orphanage and remain unbothered. I hope that you can live free of the discrimination Kushi-chan did. I hope you can live free of any influence of me. Most of all, make us proud, Naruto. Whatever you do in life, if you do it for what you feel is right, I'll be proud of you." As if letting the man finish, the Shinigami only cut his soul after that, swallowing it whole. The Hero of the Third War drew his last breath and fell to the floor, lifeless.

**[Present]**

Shiyore closed the book, allowing it to disappear into thin air as if it was never there. "I'm pretty sure I got that right anyways. My memories get a bit fuzzy regarding that night since that's the day when those two melded together and made me." She explained with a toothy grin.

"Does that… make you my mother?" Naruto asked her. Shiyore held up a hand to the boy, shaking her head.

"Of course not! I'm just as old as you are, so that's impossible! Technically the old Kyuubi and Kushina are both right here." She poked his stomach. "I'm just one of the results of them being sealed together. They're both asleep inside you right now." Naruto furrowed his brow in thought.

"Then how are you out here?" He wondered curiously.

"That's an easy one!" She exclaimed. "I'm using a genjutsu! Only you can see, hear and feel me unless I choose to allow someone else or if your chakra is connected to someone else. As it stands I've roughly got the memories of both the Old Fox and Kushina so I actually can explain some things to you. That's how I was able to tell you about that night." Standing up, the chair disappeared and the book reappeared. "This right here is a tome containing all of their combined memories for me to access."

Naruto tried to remember what a genjutsu was from what he had heard from the older kids. As he recalled, it was some sort of illusion using chakra. "You have my kaa-chan's memories?" He asked curiously.

"Isn't that what I just said?" Shiyore asked.

"You could tell me about her and my dad then, right?" Shiyore nodded. "And only I can hear you?" She nodded again. "W-will you?" Shiyore tapped her chin in thought.

"Maybe, but you have to do something for me first." Shiyore said. "Sometimes I get these strong feelings when something synchronizes between my 'parents'. That is to say, when the old Kyuubi and Kushina have some point of agreement in their emotions, I can just innately tell. I'm getting two of them about you."

"You want me to do those two things and you'll tell me about them?" Naruto asked, to which she nodded. "What are they?"

"Let's see… Kyuubi wants a 'strong host' and Kushina wants to see her son 'strong enough to protect his precious people'. So it looks like you have to train and become strong as quick as possible."

"If I can find someone to make me their apprentice I can do that!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly. He'd always wanted to become a ninja anyways, so if he did as she said it was one of his goals anyways. Though he didn't have anyone precious to protect yet…

"The second is… Kyuubi is of the opinion 'Konoha is the bane of my existence' while Kushina says 'the villagers will never understand Naruto, I just want him happy…' so it looks like we'll need to leave the village as well!" She stated cheerily. Naruto widened his eyes at that statement.

"You want me to leave this place?" He asked her quietly.

"Well, do you want to know about your parents and maybe even about the old Kyuubi too?" Shiyore asked with hands on her hips. "That's what you asked me, isn't it?"

"I'm not strong enough to leave the village yet though!" He tried to argue. Shiyore smiled.

"Well, that means we have a plan then. I help you get strong enough to leave the village and then you get stronger and find someone to make you their apprentice! I'll start telling you things after we do all that and the stronger you get the more memories I'll share with you! Everything works out perfectly for Kyuubi, Kushina, you and me!" Naruto tried to argue but Shiyore spoke with such finality he couldn't even form words.

Then she simply disappeared.


	2. Chapter II

**Red Sands**

**Chapter II**

"Um… Shiyore-nee… are you sure about this?" Naruto whispered as quietly as he possibly could. "I know that I agreed to training but doesn't this seem a little… excessive?" Beside him, the apparition only he could see appeared out of thin air, a wide smile on her face. Unlike the week before, where she had been an adult, she took the form of a girl the same age as Naruto. Her looks and outfit were mostly identical aside from her crimson hair now ending just above her shoulders, the bangs cut just above her eyebrows.

"Of course I'm sure! Also, I told you! Shiyore-_sensei_! Say is with me, _sen-sei_!" She emphasized both syllables as if the world depended on him understanding. "We're student and teacher right now, so show me some proper respect!" Flailing her arms around did not capture any of his… respect.

"Sensei… you're going to hurt yourself…" He pointed out at the same barely-a-whisper volume. Shiyore huffed and put her hands on her hips indignantly. Naruto pointed to where he was looking, hoping to get her attention back on the matter at hand. She turned her scarlet eyes to where he gestured and grinned.

Where they were looking happened to be a small merchant train. By small, Naruto meant only two wagons carrying whatever these merchants were selling. Shiyore was confident that what they were selling was shinobi equipment. "Sensei, I've taken food before and clothing from stalls when the vendor wasn't looking. I've taken some used ninja tools off of the training grounds that people left. I'm not ready to rob a caravan!"

Shiyore put her hands on her hips before smacking the back of his head. "Well, you aren't robbing a caravan!" She pointed out. "You're just… browsing their wares and borrowing a few things while the driver is occupied. It's pretty simple. Just be glad that you've got me or this would never work!"

"What are you going to be doing again?" Naruto asked, hoping to stall somehow. He wasn't averse to taking things from the merchant; no, he was _terrified _of what would happen if he was caught. Shiyore hit him again, glaring at the redhead.

"Pay more attention when I tell you things! I'm going to use a few genjutsu on the merchant and his guards. I don't know how long it will last especially if any of the guards have shinobi training though. So, to be safe, you've got no more than maybe two minutes then we have to go back to the village." Looking at the road which the caravan traveled down and away from the village he called home, the boy slowly nodded.

"Okay… go ahead." Shiyore grinned, disappearing. As she did, he felt a strange feeling inside of his body. He knew she was manipulating his chakra in a specific way to use her genjutsu. Over the last week, she had taught him a few things about shinobi. It was mostly terminology used by the shinobi world but there were a few more… practical aspects as well. One of them sat in his right hand, a simple scroll.

Looking back up at the caravan, he saw the guards, drivers and animals all stop mid-step without any reason. Taking this as the genjutsu, he quickly ran to one of the caravans and hopped onto the back, climbing inside. As they were on their way out of the village, the caravan was nearly empty until the merchant could restock wares.

** "Open up the scroll and gather exactly what I tell you." **Naruto heard the Voice he had grown so accustomed to and didn't even hesitate. He probably couldn't have resisted unless he actively thought about it, given how instinctive it had become. **"Over there, those scrolls may hold something valuable. We don't have time to look through them, so seal them inside and I'll help you delve into them later."**

He nodded, sealing six other scrolls inside of his. Next, he grabbed two pouches he commonly saw other ninja wearing to keep their ninja tools inside of at her insistence as well as some senbon to go with them. They had already agreed that shuriken and kunai would be a bit too much for that point and senbon would help both his accuracy and also were much lighter.

He sealed those up as well as a new set of clothes – black pants made to be an Academy student variation of those the ANBU wore with pockets on the legs, a black shirt, a pair of bracers and fingerless gloves – that he grabbed independent of Shiyore speaking. Rolling up the scroll and placing it in a pocket in the lining of his cloak, he jumped out of the caravan and headed back into the foliage of the trees to either side of the road. As he did, he swore he heard Shiyore breathe a sigh of relief just before the caravan moved further down the road, drivers and guards not suspecting anything.

Looking to his left just as Shiyore appeared again, he saw her grinning wide. "What did I tell you? Listen to sensei and we'll craft you into a proper shinobi in no time!" Naruto sighed, sitting down on the floor and leaning against one of the trees as he looked at the apparition.

"That was rather impressive for someone of your age." Naruto widened his eyes, slowly turning his head until he saw someone in the branch above where he sat. As the speaker jumped down, he was able to take in his features.

The figure was probably 15 or 16 with a mop of red hair that almost reached his crimson eyes and contrasted deeply to his alabaster skin tone. He seemed a bit on the short side for someone of his age and it was hard to figure out just what his build was due to the fact that a brown cloak was wrapped around his body, leaving only his head visible. "Do not worry, I will not turn you in to the authorities for what you have done."

Naruto let out a sigh of relief, slowly standing up, realizing the teenager before him was still much taller than him even if he was a little short. He only came up to just before his waist. "Thank you…" he mumbled. "I… um…. I'm Naruto." The taller redhead nodded his head, looking past Naruto and at the retreating caravan.

"You can't be more than seven, yet you were able to use a genjutsu on seven individuals and then still focus enough to take necessary supplies from the caravan but not take too much so the merchant would never suspect. Genjutsu and sealing are not things they teach in any of the Academies until the fourth year, the fifth here in Konoha. We also are not in wartime meaning it is highly unlikely that you are a fifth year student. Are you the apprentice to a Jounin perhaps?"

Shiyore suddenly disappeared, leaving Naruto to himself. "Not… exactly." He replied to the older boy. It was obvious that the redhead wasn't from Konoha by that point to Naruto. The people of the village rarely talked about the other villages without disdain in their voices except maybe Suna. The last war had ended less than a decade ago, as Shiyore had explained to him, so they were still harboring ill feelings for one another. Even as the victor, Konoha still sustained heavy losses from Kumo, Kiri and Iwa.

"So, you are self-taught?" The boy wondered curiously, crimson orbs trained on Naruto now. "If that is the case, then that was even more impressive than I first imagined." Giving a small smile to himself, the boy chuckled. "Are you currently enrolled in the Academy by chance?" When Naruto shook his head, the boy nodded to himself as if he had guessed that. "So, you are under absolutely no authority from the village. I am surprised you were able to sneak out of the village though."

"Well, there's a cave in this forest connected to the sewer system that one of the older boys at the orphanage showed me. If I squeeze through the grate just right, I can get outside the walls." Naruto replied. He was a little nervous about the boy he talked to, but it was nice to have someone paying attention to him.

Most citizens of Konoha ignored the orphans if they could, same as with the homeless. He also had very few friends in the orphanage as most of the other children were much older than him. Most children that lost their parents in the Kyuubi attack were already adopted, while the war orphans were already in the Academy and had little time to play with him anymore.

The boy hummed in thought. "I see, so you are an orphan and you still show such potential." The redhead smiled. "Would you mind showing me what you took from the caravan? If you're trying to become a ninja on your own, as I feel you are, I'd like to see how well you are prepared." Naruto hesitated a moment, but since Shiyore was being silent he decided to go with it and pulled out his scroll, opening it on the floor and unsealing the contents.

"I see… senbon and an outfit of your size are definitely good places to start. Black is a good color as well, better than what you currently have. Of course, it would be best to get multiple variations of this outfit in different colors depending on the environment your mission is in, to better camouflage yourself if shadows and darkness are not readily available to sneak in." Picking up the clothes, he ran the material between his fingers.

"Hm… this fabric is not bad, especially for someone in training. I feel you may want to get something a bit more protective or place some sort of barrier seal on it to add a layer of protection over it. The bracers and gloves will be good when you decide to pick up some weapon training as well." Putting the outfit down, he looked at the scrolls. "What are in these?"

"I'm not sure… I didn't have much time and the scrolls might have information or be sealing scrolls, I was going to check when I got somewhere safer." The teen nodded at that statement, picking up one of them and analyzing it without opening it.

"That's a good philosophy to have. Scrolls usually contain something valuable to the owner whether it is filled with writing or objects within." Placing the scroll back down, the teen nodded and placed his finger on the sealing scroll, running his chakra through to seal Naruto's objects back within it. "It is a good haul that you brought. Especially since you had only a small time-frame to do it within.

"The biggest problem is that you don't have anyone with experience to guide you in how to gain the skills you need to become a shinobi. That is why the Academy exists, to allow potential shinobi the ability to gain knowledge from other shinobi who have that knowledge. If you do become a ninja on your own, you'll have to make all the mistakes on your own and risk all the dangers that a teacher would have already gone through."

Naruto looked down at his scroll and rolled it up, placing it inside his cloak again. "I know… but I have to. Only if I become strong will I be able to learn about who my mother and father were, what sort of people they were and why they had to die the night I was born." The redhead saw the fire behind those violet eyes and stood up. The jinchuuriki's eyes followed the boy's movement and he stood as well.

"Time is an interesting thing." He began. "Humans are as well. We always do our best to leave a mark, to be remembered generations past our deaths. The marks we leave behind, the monuments that are raised in recognition of our work regardless of whether that work was considered wholesome or depraved… these marks, they are the true art that we strive for.

"To have people worship your name as the symbol of hope, or to whisper it in fear when darkness creeps over the land… in either case, it is still the art that humans crave. We want to be immortal, to escape the death we are doomed to suffer in any way we can, even if it is only our name that lives on.

"I can respect your goal to keep your parents' own memories living on, a process that may end with them being immortalized if you are as well. I wanted the same thing after my own mother and father were lost in the war…" Closing his crimson eyes, the boy chuckled.

"My grandmother did not approve of the method I chose to form them into art, but that is quite acceptable. Not everyone is able to understand what true art is. That is also human, to not understand others, to discriminate against them for what they believe in or for what they are, to fight over ideals in bloody conflict. Even war leads to art, though the cost of those sculptures of corpses, the paintings of blood, the songs of a thousand voices being silenced at once are much higher than most are willing to pay.

"I seem to have gone far off-topic however." The boy told Naruto. "You are in need of a sensei and I would like to finally do as my sensei did before me and her sensei before her and his sensei before him and pass on my knowledge to a worthy disciple. It would require you to leave your home village and travel with me, but would you like to prove that you are worthy and perhaps learn to be not only a shinobi, but turn your parents' memories into immortal art?"

Naruto widened his eyes at the proposal. He quickly nodded to the boy. He could take care of both of Shiyore's requirements at once if he did. That's what mattered, all that mattered. "I am glad to hear." The redhead placed a hand on the Naruto's shoulder. "I am glad to pass on my knowledge to a fellow Uzumaki. It is nice to meet you, my apprentice. You may call me Sasori-sensei?"

"Sasori-sensei… what sort of things will I learn?" Naruto asked as they walked away from Konoha. The older redhead kept his pace without saying anything for a moment. The younger one assumed he was gathering his thoughts, so didn't say anything.

"How much about the different branches of shinobi, both combat and non-combat, do you know of right now?" Sasori wondered curiously. Naruto thought about that before responding.

"Well, I don't know that much. I do know that ninja have fighting styles with weapons and without… I think the terms are… taijutsu and kenjutsu?"

"Close, but not quite. Taijutsu is in fact unarmed combat, but kenjutsu speaks specifically of armed combat that utilizes swords. Armed combat in general is called bukijutsu. What else do you know?"

"I know that a shinobi can affect another person or animal's sense using their chakra, it's called genjutsu, right?" Sasori nodded. "Also, I know that you can use fuinjutsu for many different uses like storage and barriers."

"Interesting, you forgot the most famous of the arts." Sasori noted. "Ninjutsu is the fifth branch of shinobi combat. It involves using handseals to mold your chakra in a variety of ways from elemental techniques, healing, making clones of yourself and even changing places with another object. I will be teaching you arts from all five of these branches that revolve around another art that I have mastered more than any man alive."

"What art is that?" Naruto wondered curiously. If he had found a sensei that was the master of an art, then that was great! He could definitely become strong enough for Shiyore! "And does that make you a famous shinobi?"

Sasori smiled mysteriously. "I suppose you could say that I'm pretty famous. I have an entry in the Bingo Book even." When he saw Naruto's confused look, he expanded. "The Bingo Book is a collection of bounties each village has on shinobi. I'll have to give you a lesson on how bounties work, but I am listed in it under the moniker of Akasuna no Sasori for one particular battle during the Third Shinobi World War in which my traps and puppets painted the sands around Sunagakure red with blood. The wind still hasn't completely covered the scarlet grains, so you can still see some patches to the west of the village."

"Puppets?" Naruto asked, curiosity in his eyes. "Is that what your art is?" Sasori nodded.

"Yes, kugutsu is the name of my art and the art I will be passing on to you just as my grandmother passed to me. Each puppeteer in my line has made revolutionary changes to the art all the way back to the original creator of the art, a man named Outsutsuki Tsukiyomi who was the grandson of the Sage of Six Paths himself. The original puppets he created are actually in possession of my grandmother and would have been passed to me except for certain… disagreements her and I had. That is a triviality at this moment however."

"What exactly is a puppet, sensei?" Naruto wondered. Somehow, he didn't think that the small wooden dolls he'd seen during one festival was what he meant.

"The term is somewhat loose and can be applied to many different things." Sasori explained. "In general, a puppet is an object which you control using chakra strings for multiple uses including scouting, battle, storage and one of my ancestors even found a way to use them for medical uses." He could see Naruto was still having trouble imagining it. "Do not worry too much, you probably won't get a puppet for some time. I first need to train you in the arts that lead to kugutsu before you do anything with an actual puppet."

"Oh, I think that makes sense…" Naruto replied. It was a bit disheartening to learn that he had to train just to know enough so he could train in the art he would eventually learn, but he moved on as a fire sparked in his violet eyes. "I'll do whatever it takes to become a great ninja that will make them proud!"

Sasori found the energy Naruto showed to be refreshing. Back in Suna, there were very few people who were like that. His father was like that as was his fellow student under Chiyo-sensei. He frowned at that thought… _She must hate me at this point, just like the rest of the village. Or perhaps she has died._

"Sasori-sensei?" The taller of the duo looked down to his new companion, seeing the innocent worry on the boy's face. "Are you alright? You just stopped walking out of nowhere and stared off into space." Sasori smiled to the boy, chuckling.

"Lost in my thoughts, unfortunately I seem to do that quite a bit these days." Looking around in the spot they were, he nodded to himself. It was an open glade within the forests of Hi no Kuni created as Senjuu Hashirama stayed in Konoha. Just the mere presence of that man was enough to cause trees to sprout up. The Fire Daimyou was not likely to complain as lumber was still the country's largest export. To this day, chakra paper could only be processed from trees native from Hi no Kuni. "This place will do very nicely."

"What are we going to be doing, Sasori-sensei?" Naruto asked curiously. The puppet master looked upon his student, wondering the same thing. He had no baseline for his student just yet, but that was an easy thing to fix. If he started from the beginning, anything the boy already knew should be absorbed easily and once he hit a learning curve then that was obviously the extent of the boy's knowledge.

"Training will be taking up a majority of your time." Sasori explained. "Even I, with the rank of puppet master, am still learning every day. Unlike other shinobi, our style is an art and every user of the style is unique. No two puppeteers are exactly alike, each of us is an artist in our own right. That's why you must always remember this about your style no matter what. No one is ever done training, from the lowest Academy student up to even the Five Kage. Every ninja is still a student in some way and has much to learn. The one rule above all other is simple and only three words: knowledge is power."

"Knowledge is power…" Naruto mumbled back, nodding once to show his understanding of what his sensei had said. "I think I get it. Kabuto often said the same thing." Sasori rose an eyebrow at the mention of one of his sleeper agents, looking at Naruto questioningly. "Kabuto is one of the older boys at the orphanage I stayed at." Naruto explained, obviously taking the look to mean something else.

"Of course. He must be smart if he understood that rule." He replied. "What you must do is imagine your mind as a bottomless reservoir and imagine knowledge as the water that can fill it. Remember that it will never be full, but your goal is to continuously feed it with anything that could be useful. Techniques, even ones you will not or cannot use, can be especially useful."

"How can something I can't use be useful?" Naruto asked his sensei as the puppet master sat in a lotus position. Naruto followed suit, enjoying the benefit of his newly acquired pants flexibility. "Isn't that… um… what's the word...? C… con…?"

"I believe you are trying to say conflicting, Naruto." Sasori helped his student. "It would seem that the logic is conflicting, yes, but I never said that I wanted you to follow the logic that other people have set forth for you. The reason why something you cannot use would be useful is because someone else can use it.

"Techniques, information, weapons, artifacts, contracts and even what seems like garbage can be traded, sold or used as leverage when it comes to interpersonal interaction. Everything has a use and as puppet master it is our job to find what that use is and then find an advantage in having that knowledge."

"I think I understand, sensei." Naruto replied. "So, we want to have as much knowledge as we can possibly get?" Sasori nodded. "Is that why knowledge has a price?" He wondered, thinking about the deal he made with Shiyore. "The more someone wants to know something… the more it is worth?"

"You are perceptive; yes that is correct. It is a simple law. The Law of Supply and Demand translates to mean that if there is supply and demand of a particular thing, then a transaction will be made. The lower the supply and higher the demand, the more it is worth. The most valuable thing to hold and the most expensive thing to lose is a secret that someone doesn't want to be made public."

Naruto frowned, becoming lost in thought. It was true… he would do almost anything to learn about his parents and Shiyore was the only one with all of his mother's memories. To him, those were worth more than any amount of money or power. "I think you're right, Sasori-sensei. Secrets are really valuable…" Sasori looked at his new student with a small smile. He did wonder what the boy thought of when he said that, but no matter the motivation, so long as he proved to live up to the potential Sasori saw in him, he didn't care.

"I think it is time I explain to you how your training will work. All of the things I teach you will fall under one of two categories: theory and practical knowledge. Practical knowledge is any and everything that will be used in combat between you and an opponent. Theory is everything else, such as what we just spoke of. Remember that everything is a lesson, even if it doesn't seem like it."

"Hai, Sasori-sensei." Naruto nodded to show his understanding. "When is the first lesson and what is it about?" He wondered curiously.

"I will assume that you understand what chakra is, how to mold it and some of the things it can be used for?" Naruto nodded to show agreement. "That is good. One of the many things you will need to learn is not only how to mold it, but how to only use the exact amount of chakra necessary for any particular technique. As an Uzumaki, chakra control will be one of the hardest things for you to master, but trust me when I say that once you do it will make you capable of things very few can ever accomplish."

Shiyore had said something similar. Since he had so much chakra from both his Uzumaki Blood and also being a jinchuuriki, it would be _very _difficult to gain chakra control and just as difficult to retain it year after year. The best course of action would be to gain it while he was young and had relatively little then continue to train in keeping his control refined every single day.

"The simplest exercise is also useful in its own right both on and off the battlefield." Sasori raised his hand and Naruto felt… something near the man's first finger extend up towards the tree. It wasn't anything he could see, but he knew it was there. Looking up where he knew it would touch, Naruto saw a leaf plucked from the tree and was pulled directly to Sasori's outstretched hand.

"What was that, sensei? I felt something from your finger grab the leaf." The puppet master looked at Naruto curiously before the corner of his lips twitched upwards ever so slightly. His apprentice was turning out to be all he had hoped and more.

"I used the most basic of techniques from kugutsu, the Chakra Strand. With perfect chakra control, one can mold their chakra in the form of an extendable string and attach it to an object, controlling it with movements and twitches of your hand and fingers. All I did there was attach it to the leaf and retract it back.

"That is an exercise you will come to learn in the future once your control is fine enough. For now, we will work on doing just that and all it takes is this one leaf." Sasori hummed to himself. "I think it will be easier since you are a sensor though."

"Sensei… what do you mean I'm a sensor? And how will that make chakra control easier for me?" The redhead smiled and stood, Naruto following suit. "Sensei?"

"Come, we have ground to cover. I will explain as we walk." Naruto followed his teacher, listening intently as he received the leaf Sasori held. "A natural sensor-type ninja is a relatively uncommon occurrence, some would even say rare. This type of person is born with the ability to sense when, where and how chakra is being molded within a certain range. It is because their body subconsciously sends out a pulse of chakra that reflects off of other chakra sources and comes back to them in a process similar to a bat's echolocation.

"This process is something that can be learned artificially, though. If it is not a natural skill, the shinobi will have to consciously send out the pulse themselves using a handseal. I actually had to learn how to use that technique as part of my training for kugutsu. Since you can do it naturally, you can actually feel how I mold my chakra and try to replicate it until it is a perfect mirror."

He reached up, a strand of what Naruto now knew was chakra extending to grab him another leaf and pull it back to his hand as they walked on through the woods. "The Leaf exercise is a simple thing they would teach you in your second year at the Academy, but general education never was a proper way to learn in my opinion. A maximum of three students to each teacher is the puppeteer's way and that's how it should be." Naruto watched as Sasori held the leaf between his fingers.

That same feeling he got picked up again as the puppet master let go of the leaf and it hung off of his index finger alone. "Is that the training?" Naruto asked. "To use chakra to make the leaf… stick?" Sasori nodded. Knowing that, Naruto felt how Sasori was molding his chakra to keep the leaf in place. It felt like… suction. His chakra was being channeled to the tip of his finger and stayed there, in place, right above the center of the leaf.

Placing the leaf in between his fingers, Naruto tried to do the same. He channeled his chakra just above the center of the leaf on his index finger. As he removed his thumb, he was surprised when it suddenly exploded into shreds, falling to the ground slowly. "It seems as if it may be a long lesson, my apprentice."


	3. Chapter III

**Red Sands**

**Chapter I****II**

Everything was dark… it was hard to see anything. He could feel the hard floor through his sandals, though. Naruto reached out to find his surroundings. To his right he found what felt like a smooth, stone wall. By that time, his eyes had begun to grow accustomed to the dim lighting and he noted that the wall was a deep grey concrete. He spotted an identical one to his left not far from where he stood.

As he stepped forward, Naruto felt something similar to when Sasori used chakra, only this time it was on a _much _larger scale and there were three different sources. Feeling curious, he began walking towards them. He could feel that they were all in the same direction, though they were some distance apart from each other.

As he walked closer to them he began to feel just how… dense they were. Two of them were _immensely _larger than Sasori-sensei. He didn't even come close to the smaller of the two. The third was probably close to being half again as large as what he felt coming from his teacher, but it was also the furthest away from him.

The closest to him was also by far the largest, easily over one hundred times as large as Sasori-sensei. That was impressive as in the two weeks since he had been under the puppet master's tutelage, he hadn't sensed anyone that even came close to the man. He had taken on both bandits and other ninja, but Sasori told Naruto he had yet to reveal his full chakra to him. He used a trick to suppress the full volume of his reserves so sensor-types – like Naruto – couldn't tell how strong he was.

As he got closer to the largest source, he noticed that the walkway transitioned into a large chamber. The ceiling was beyond his vision, but the part he was more interested in was the center where several chairs were set up in a circle, one chair raised on a pedestal higher than the rest of them. Approaching that chair, he saw writing engraved in the back.

_ "Lord of the Waves, Shadow of the Tides, Maelstrom of the Whirlpools…_ What does that mean?" Naruto wondered. He was surprised as the engraving began to… change. _"Puller of Strings, Grandmaster of Puppetry, Bane of Traitors…" _He waited to see if it would change again, but the engraving… disappeared. The oak seat simply held a spiral on the back now. Maybe he had been seeing things?

Turning away from the seat, he looked at the rest of the room and noticed something about one seat in particular. Walking towards it, Naruto picked up a familiar book that was in the seat. _This is… Shiyore's book! _He exclaimed in his head. _The book with the memories of the Kyuubi and kaa-chan! _

Well… he had been doing well in his training, right? _I mean… I did the leaf exercise and I can surface cling already – I even almost have the Replacement Jutsu down! I think I earned the right to just look at a little bit… right? _Inching his hand forward, he looked around. He didn't know exactly where he was, but he didn't question it too much. If she had left her tome here, it was her fault, not his!

Picking it up, he sat in the chair it had been in and opened to a random page. When he looked at the paper, there were no words, which he found odd. Squinting at it, he jumped when he heard a noise around him. Looking for the source, he saw the chamber had… changed. His seat was no longer the oak chair he had sat in, but now a tree stump. The chamber had become a large glade filled with lush, emerald grass surrounded by trees.

Before he could stand to see where he was, someone walked in the room. He wasn't any of the large chakra signatures, so Naruto remained as small as possible, motionless as he tried to stay hidden. The man was probably somewhere along the lines of late twenties with long, raven black hair past his neck, bangs framing his onyx eyes. He wore a black, long-sleeved shirt, black gloves, black pants and shinobi sandals as well as a Konohagakure hitai-ite around his forehead, barely visible because of his long hair.

"Took you long enough, you insolent sack of flesh." A voice called out before a fox easily double the height of the black-haired man walked into the glade, nine tails swaying around. "You should follow orders of your superior quicker." Naruto realized it was the fox that was talking.

"Stupid furball…" The man mumbled under his breath. "Why did you summon me? Was it important? It better be, I was in the middle of something." The fox growled at the man, narrowing its red eyes dangerously. "What?"

"Passing the waste from my body is a more important matter than anything you mortals may think is vital to your continued survival. Whatever you were doing, don't ever place it above your Contract with me. Do you understand me?" The fox's voice was low and threatening as the air gained a… pressure to it. It became stifling to be in the same area as those two, but Naruto couldn't move an inch, even if he wanted to. His body wouldn't follow his mind's orders.

"Understood, Kurama…" the black haired man grumbled, obviously not happy. "What is it you needed me for anyways?" The nine-tailed kitsune looked at the man, silent a moment before turning away.

"Your brother is becoming a problem, Izuna. Madara is… entertaining ideals we do not approve of. He is making plans that go against everything the Sage set forth when he freed my siblings and me. He may be after your eyes soon… his will surely go blind in a short time."

"No… Madara-niisama may be a bit confused right now, but he wouldn't do that. He wouldn't betray me and the plans… he's just researching. He would never try to put everyone to sleep like that. He believes in free will, that's why you let him make the Contract, isn't it?" Izuna tried to argue. The kitsune shook its head.

"I was afraid you would be blind to the problems… either you will be able to see the truth before it is too late… or the blindness will continue for the rest of your life after he plucks your eyes right out. Do not say I didn't warn you, Izuna. We do believe in loyalty to family, but if one of us goes against the entire family, then it is not punished lightly."

"Thank you for your concern… but Madara-niisama would never do something like that. I trust him with my life." The kitsune let out what sounded like a chuckle, though there was no humor in it.

"That trust will be a lesson for one of us then, won't it? If either of us is right, I hope it is you but I, unfortunately, do not have the freedom to make such light dreams such as hope. Begone now, go to your brother and lead him from the path he so carelessly treads… he will need the guidance."

The scene Naruto witnessed dispersed without warning. Forestry was replaced with the room he had been in before. The tree stump was once more the oak chair he remembered sitting in. Looking down at the book, Naruto saw the page was now filled with writing with sketched drawings of Izuna and Kurama in the center of the page, depicting the scene he had just seen. He closed the book, setting it back on the chair as he stood.

He still had no idea where he was, but one of those scenes was enough for him. He had never experienced a genjutsu himself – Shiyore didn't count to him since she was a person – but he was pretty sure that's what he just experienced. The book had a genjutsu to make whoever held it experience memories of either Kurama or Kushina…

That did bring up a good question for Naruto that he thought of as he walked away from the chamber. Who were Izuna and Madara and how did they know the Kyuubi? Izuna said something about a Contract… but what did he mean? Maybe he would have to do some research… Sasori-sensei said that researching a problem was the best way to come up with a solution.

Where should he go now though? There were still those three signatures… should he head for the strongest? Should he walk all the way to the weakest? There was also the middle one in both strength and distance… it was a tough decision. All of them were in the same direction, so he may as well walk that way anyways, right?

From the chamber, he found himself in another hallway, this one a lot wider than the last one he had been in. As he got closer to the sources, he began to notice… differences in how they felt. The closest source felt… angry and suffocating. It felt like the source wanted _everything _dead. The middle source was… lighter. It felt warm and inviting, like a crackling fire on a chilly night. The last… where did it go?

"Having fun?" Naruto jumped in surprise at the familiar voice and looked around until his eyes caught sight of his other teacher. "I won't question how you got here as I feel as if I know just who was responsible, even with the little consciousness that she has right now." Shaking her head, the fox-like girl shrugged.

"Shiyore-sensei? Where are we? Do you know?" Naruto asked her in rapid succession.

"Slow down there." She told him, crossing her arms. "I'll tell you everything, but there's someone I think you'll like to see." That piqued his interest but instead of saying anything else, Shiyore simply kept walking toward the other two signatures. As they passed by the angry, much larger signature without slowing down Naruto knew what the destination was.

Based on the book, he was almost certain the large signature was the Kyuubi. The angry and merciless feeling of the immense chakra signature was just like the scene with Kurama and Izuna only on a vastly larger scale. Shiyore was the smallest of the signatures. That much was evident since she was by him now and he could feel her chakra. Who could the last signature be?

As they reached a fork in the hallway, Shiyore led him into a large chamber. Several dozen chains hung from the ceiling, idly swinging and creaking with every motion, spikes glistening with dried blood and red fur on some of the chains. Carefully, Naruto made sure not to touch any of the chains as he followed Shiyore further into the chamber. When she stopped, he looked at her. "Right through there, go ahead. She doesn't have much strength, but I'm sure she can stay awake long enough to talk to you."

Naruto was confused but nevertheless he walked forward, leaving his sensei behind. He trusted Shiyore implicitly. Weaving through the chains cautiously, he found an opening where there were no chains, but instead a woman. She sat in a chair that looked to be made of the same material as the chains with a cushioned seat.

Her bright red hair fell past the seat of the chair, blending in with the cushion as purple eyes full of exhaustion lit up when he walked in. She wore what looked like what he had seen the Jounin in Konoha dressed in, minus the vest and hitai-ite. "Oh… Naruto-chan… is that you? Come here, come here."

The redheaded boy was a little hesitant but walked towards the woman. Shiyore trusted this woman, so he would as well. "How do you know who I am? Who are you?" He asked curiously. The woman smiled, though it was a little weak.

"I helped pick your name so of course I would know it, silly!" She said with a grin. "Oh, I was against the idea at first, but your father and Jiraiya did convince me to do it after some time. I guess the double meaning fitting so well with both our clan name and ramen was what finally convinced me!" The woman began giggling at that statement.

"You helped pick my name?" Naruto asked. "Did you know my mother!?" He asked excitedly, eyes wide with energetic curiosity, looking up to the woman. She smiled a little.

"I suppose you could say that your mother and I were closer than anyone else in the world. I was there for everything that happened to her." Naruto widened his eyes as she ruffled her hair and smiled, eyes closed. "Where are my manners though? I'm sure Mito-baachan would be upset at me for not introducing myself to my only son. I am Uzumaki Kushina, nice to meet you Naruto-chan."

"K-kaa-chan?" He exclaimed, disbelief deep in his eyes until he began to piece the puzzle together. He should've guessed this was her after Shiyore showed up… he wasn't thinking though…

Kushina smiled until, without warning, Naruto rushed forward, wrapping his arms around her waist and burying his face in her stomach. Though surprised, Kushina immediately let that shock give way to joy as she placed her hand on the back of his head, feeling the crimson spikes that were so much like his father's, rubbing his head softly. "There, there, Naruto-chan, kaa-chan is here for you now. I may not be able to leave like Shiyore-chan can, but you can come see me anytime you want. You'll do that for kaa-chan right?"

When Naruto looked up at her, Kushina saw tears threatening to spill from his violet eyes and just the thought of her baby crying filled her own eyes with tears as well. "Naruto-chan, what's wrong? Don't cry, please…" She leaned forward, hugging him tightly as she could and stroking his hair as he buried his face in her shoulder.

"I'm n-not crying, kaa-chan!" He argued, holding her tightly, clinging with a grip of steel. "I w-wanted to see you since I could r-remember!" Kushina smiled, softly rubbing his back and simply held him for a few minutes until he calmed himself a little.

"Let me look at you…" She asked him, pulling back just a little, hands on his shoulders as her eyes scanned his frame. "You've grown so big since I last saw you… oh… my baby is growing so fast! You'll be a ninja soon and then find a nice girl and start a family of your own! I just can't wait!" Kushina squeezed him tightly again, holding him close as she could.

Just then, Kushina began to violently cough. Naruto pulled back and looked at her with worry deep in his eyes. After several moments, she stopped, but was obviously exhausted. "I thought I would have a little longer…" She mumbled, obviously not enjoying the cough or what it meant. "I don't have my full strength back yet… the sealing took a lot out of me, Naruto-chan. I've been able to stay awake longer and longer each month, even if it's only slightly, but pulling you in here took a lot out of me… I'm sorry…"

"You need to rest?" He asked to which Kushina smiled sadly with a tired nod. "Good night kaa-chan… I know you're okay and where to find you so I can wait. You'll be here when I come back, right?" The desperate tone in his voice just about broke Kushina's heart, but she still nodded. "I'll come back and see you later then, kaa-chan! I promise!" She smiled and ruffled his hair before the chair turned into a bed, her blanket the same color the cushion had been.

"Good night, Naruto-chan." Leaning over, she kissed his forehead softly before laying down. "Stay safe. That's all I ask from you. Well, stay safe and do what makes you happy. If you do those things I'll always be proud of you." Naruto nodded once with a serious look. "Shiyore-chan will show you how to wake back up and how to come back here whenever you want. I love you, Naruto…" she mumbled the last words with closed eyes before exhaustion took his mother.

Naruto smiled and pulled the covers up to her neck before walking out of the chamber. He would make his kaa-chan proud! That was the only thought that ran through his mind.

**[][][]**

Sarutobi Hiruzen, for the umpteenth time in his long life, felt genuine anxiety and – dare he say it – fear. His ANBU had been searching for six long weeks for Naruto, to no avail. At first he had only sent out one squad – four people that were close to Minato and Kushina: Kakashi, Yuugao, Mikoto and Genma – since there hadn't really ever been violence concerning Naruto. He was probably just out hiding somewhere in the training grounds, watching the shinobi practice and fell asleep. It had happened on a few occasions.

This time was different however. The squad did not find him. They did not have the opportunity to take the sleeping form of the secret jinchuuriki back to his orphanage as they had so often done before. On the second day, he was worried and so another squad was sent to search through the village high and low to locate the missing boy. Surely eight ANBU could find a boy who hadn't even attended the shinobi Academy yet, right?

Apparently the answer to that was no, they could not.

By the end of the first week, eight separate ANBU squads were sent out not just through Konoha but also among the outskirts of the village. By two weeks, the number had quadrupled and the search was no longer within the village, but solely outside the Hidden Leaf in the dense forestry of Hi no Kuni. Three weeks saw twelve squads of ANBU and four squads of Jounin specializing in tracking down criminals with sensors, Hyuuga and Inuzuka within every squad.

It continued to escalate until the situation was at present. Over seventy ANBU, forty Jounin and sixty Chuunin were actively searching every part of the country that had yet to be searched. The entire situation was out of hand… this was not at all close to anything he ever expected. Naruto was a good kid… he might be a little mischievous, perhaps take a bit of food here and there when the orphanage's meals weren't enough but this was unprecedented.

Either he had run away for some reason he couldn't see or someone kidnapped him… both options were not pleasant. There was, of course, a third option which was worse than the previous two by a hundredfold, easily. That little boy could be… dead… rotting away as the shinobi looked for him in every nook and cranny. The thought was unbearable…

"Hokage-sama… you summoned me?" The Sandaime looked up towards the voice that broke his thought process. It was an ANBU in a Weasel mask who stood before him. "Is there something I can do for you?"

"As the ANBU Commander, you are my second-in-command, Itachi." Hiruzen commented. Despite the gravity of the situation, he still found somewhere within him to appreciate the humor of his Commander's codename as it corresponded identically to his given name. "As such, I would like you to call back the shinobi and inform them that the search is to be… halted. There will remain orders for the border patrols to keep an eye for a boy of the same description but if he hasn't been found in six weeks, the chances that we will find the same boy who went missing suddenly would be nothing short of a miracle." The ANBU slowly nodded his head once.

"Of course, Hokage-sama. Your will shall be done." Bowing his head, the Commander disappeared in a murder of crows. As he left, Hiruzen sighed to himself. The village would go on the same as usual, despite what happened. That was one of the many upsides of keeping the identity of the village's jinchuuriki kept to a small group of those he trusted. He simply hoped that wherever Naruto was, he was safe and sound.

**[Somewhere in the Land of Grass]**

"What lesson will I be learning today, sensei?" Naruto wondered curiously as the duo of puppet master and apprentice walked along a trail with grass to either side of them that rose twice the height of an average man.

"In the last six weeks you've done very well, Naruto." Sasori began. "The leaf exercise, tree walking and jumping, the Replacement and Transformation Jutsu have all done their job to focus your chakra control. I've only been teaching you utility skills however. I see the question in your eyes, so I will explain. I've been teaching you basic skills that are not necessarily directly offensive nor defensive but are useful for situations outside of combat.

"While your control is indeed getting better, I don't think you're quite ready for the Chakra Strand Jutsu just yet. You do still need some sort of abilities in combat, though. For that reason, today I will give you a choice. You will be able to decide what order you shall learn the next three lessons in." Naruto tilted his head curiously as Sasori had never offered him a choice before. "You can either learn your chakra affinity, begin training in illusions or get an introduction to fuinjutsu."

At the mention of fuinjutsu, Naruto recalled both Shiyore and his mother – in the small visits he had with her – explaining that the Uzumaki were particularly gifted in the art. It was almost a bloodline for them, in fact. "I think I want to start with sealing, sensei." He responded. Anything that got him closer to his mother would be great in his eyes. He could ask her questions about it and get closer to her, right?

Sasori nodded. "Good, I had hoped you would say that anyways. While fuinjutsu, genjutsu and ninjutsu are all very important for the particular style of puppetry I'm going to eventually teach you, seals are much more important to it than the other two by a longshot. Follow me and we can find somewhere for the lesson."

Soon they found a break in the grass that gave way to an open area filled with something Naruto had never seen in his life. The structures had a thin stalk that stretched as high as any tree in Hi no Kuni with a bulbous top that extended wide from the stalk itself. "Sensei, what are these?" He wondered.

"Ah, these are called mushrooms, Naruto. The plant life here in Kusa no Kuni is not limited to only the high grass it was named for. All sorts of flora that usually does not grow well flourishes in this area. Weeds, fungi and other such plant life that most people find unsavory flourish well in the conditions of this country."

"Why is that, sensei?" Naruto asked, very curious as he looked at the large mushroom. It towered far above him, though not even halfway to what the Hokage Tower stood and not even a quarter to the Hokage Monument. Its shape was also unique as he had never seen any sort of plant grow like that and it intrigued him as to what its purpose was.

"Fungi are a type of specimen that find nourishment in the dead. They consume the nutrients from corpses and decompose the flesh. Weeds grow by the same process normal fauna does except they grow much, much faster. Wherever they grow, normal plant life dies because it cannot keep up. The two help each other in Kusa no Kuni, you see.

"Wherever a very large tree is growing, if weeds sprout up around it they will eventually start to kill it slowly. As the tree becomes less and less healthy, mushrooms and other fungi may attach themselves too it if the spores come into contact with it. Spores, so you know, are how fungi spread. A fungus will release genetic copies of itself into the air and let the wind carry it off to let it grow in the ground or attached to a tree. In a place that the normally dominant caste finds death, the hated and weak caste finds life and thrives."

Naruto was directly under the large mushroom now and looked up at the underside of its cap before nodding in understanding. "They work together because they're weak. When they work together, they can overcome even the strongest of trees, right sensei?" He turned to look at the puppet master, who nodded his head. "I think I see… puppets are the same, right?"

"Explain your thoughts, my apprentice." Sasori implored, very curious to see which connections the boy had made from the little story he gave him. It would be, at the very least, intriguing.

"Usually, a puppeteer isn't that physically strong, especially not compared to a taijutsu master. A puppeteer has to use traps, tricks, lies and tools to overcome any battle, but against someone who's trained to be physically strong all their life they need something more. They need to use multiple puppets at the same time doing different things. The puppets have to look like they aren't doing something together, but at the end the combination is both clear and powerful. Strong enough to make even the physically weakest puppeteer take out someone like Might Guy."

Sasori couldn't help but let a small smile grace his lips as he approached his apprentice and nodded. "You are correct. That is one most basic rules of not only puppetry but also being a shinobi. You must be so subtle that you are invisible; be so mysterious that you are intangible. If you do that, you will control your opponent's actions."

Nodding to himself, Sasori then pulled a scroll from his cloak and unrolled it on the floor as he sat on his knees, waiting for Naruto to follow suit. "We are off-track however. I have a feeling you will learn fuinjutsu rather quickly so it was a good choice. The Uzumaki have always been masters of sealing. It is so ingrained into us that it has actually become a bloodline through generations of use."

"How is that even possible?" Naruto wondered. "Isn't a bloodline something that has to happen genetically?"

"That is correct, Naruto. However, chakra is deeply intertwined with not only one's soul but also one's very DNA. More specifically, the Yin chakra, which is one's mental and spiritual energy, represents one's intellect, soul and memories. The Yang chakra, which is one's physical energy, represents one's strength, fortitude and their physical body.

"Our clan has always been gifted with high amounts of Yang chakra, you see. After generations and generations of specialization in certain skills those abilities resonated within us. The more of your ancestors who practiced similar things, the easier that skill-set will come to you. All the way back to the original matriarch of our clan, we have practiced fuinjutsu. Even though it is a highly complex and difficult art, it comes to us naturally through our familial connection. This is something we've come to name our Divine Tree, Kaiki. Unlike normal trees, however, the roots are spread high and we are the very tip. They lay the foundation for us to thrive and grow."

"Is puppetry in our blood, Sasori-sensei?" Naruto wondered curiously. It was a valid question given the context, so Sasori responded.

"There is very little that isn't in our blood, Naruto. Our clan traces its roots to the very beginning of shinobi. During the Clan Wars any skill that could kill was seen as useful. My grandmother actually has the ten puppets that the original puppeteer created, the original puppets. That man was an Uzumaki, even.

"As for puppetry in your branch of the clan specifically, that would be difficult to know without first knowing who your Uzumaki parent was. As it would be difficult to track that person down, we shall leave that for another time and another place."

"But Sasori-sensei, I know who she is!" Naruto announced, making Sasori look at the boy. It took Sasori a moment to ponder, but he remembered that Naruto's whole goal was to find out who his parents were. He had assumed that meant he had nothing to go on, but maybe the boy only had a name to go on? Well, it would make tracking his ancestry easier.

"Well, if you tell me her name, I can definitely find out what skills were in your branch. It will make your training much easier for me to plan out." Ultimately, the puppet master was prepared for just about anything besides what came out of Naruto's mouth.

"Her name is Uzumaki Kushina, sensei!" As Sasori's eyes widened, Naruto became worried and reached out, shaking the man's arm. There was no response whatsoever. "Sensei? Sensei!" Yelling it out seemed to shake Sasori out of his stupor and caused him to look at his apprentice. "Is something wrong, sensei? Do you know who she is?" The older redhead frowned.

"Naruto you must promise me something right now and never, ever break the promise in your life. Do you understand me?" The boy was slow to act but nodded eventually. "You must not tell anyone else who your mother is until you are S-rank. If the wrong person heard about it, you could be in a lot of danger. When I say danger, I am talking about Kirigakure or Kumogakure trying to capture you to be turned into a weapon and then breeding stock. The only thing that could make it worse is if you were the Kyuubi jinchuuriki…"

"Um… sensei…" Sasori looked at the boy and chuckled, shaking his head.

"Of course you are… add Konoha into that lineup then. You know, baa-chan would just laugh at me and tell me that this is exactly the sort of thing that I would get into. 'Only you would choose the one person as an apprentice that is wanted by almost all of the Great Five. Just count yourself lucky Iwa and Suna don't hate his guts for existing!' That's probably exactly what she would say."

"S-sensei… I'm sorry…" Sasori looked at the boy to see him staring at the ground. The puppet master sighed before placing his hand on the boy's head and ruffling his hair. It was what his father had always done to make him feel better when he got stuck in some sort of rut. Naruto looked up at the man, confusion in his eyes.

"Naruto, you haven't done anything wrong. As far as I'm concerned, you're progressing very well especially considering both your ancestry and your tenant. I'll adjust your training with this new information in mind, but that's the only thing I'll do with it. The sins of the mother should not be the sins of the son. And being a jinchuuriki is nothing to be scared of, especially to sealmasters.

"You're still my apprentice and my cousin, no matter what. Family is the most sacred thing to us Uzumaki, Naruto. That doesn't necessarily mean blood either. Remember that family is more than flesh and blood, it is a concept. Anyone you are willing to die for even if it only gives them one more moment of life, one miniscule chance of survival, that's what family is. Flesh and blood simply makes that decision easier."

Naruto couldn't help it as tears gathered in his eyes. "Sensei… are we family?" It only took Sasori nodding once for the boy who had not known any family at any point in Konoha to launch himself at Sasori, hugging him. The man smiled and slowly patted the boy's back.

_ Family… that's something I haven't had in quite a while. Not since Hatake took kaa-san and tou-san. Naruto hasn't even known anything like family… I think it could be nice._

**[Naruto's Mindscape]**

Within Naruto's mind, in a chamber filled with rattling chains decorated with serrated blades there was a woman with red hair who let a smile touch her lips. "Oh… Naruto-chan… I'm so glad for you. I wish I could be out there with you…"

"Yeah, but that's my job, isn't it Kushina-hime?" The redhead sat in a chair, looking at a crystal ball before the voice captured her attention. Shiyore had on her trademark grin as Kushina looked up at her.

"Yes, Shiyore-chan. That's why I made you. I'm stuck here, but at least you can help him. I hate lying to him but I have to. All I want is him protected…" Shiyore let her grin become a dark smirk at that statement as she shifted to her loli form.

"Don't worry about that, kaa-chan. I won't let anyone hurt my onii-chan. If they even think about it, I'll make them wish that they're father and mother had never made eye contact with each other…" With her hair shadowing her eyes, the foxgirl's childish demeanor was ruined by the psychopathic aura she gave off.

"Thank you, Shi-chan. I appreciate it. How is _he_?" She asked the little girl.

"Tou-san is sleeping, as usual." She said with a shrug, the dark aura immediately gone. "He hasn't even stirred in over two months. Whatever you did to meld him and you into me took more of a toll on him than you, that's for sure."

"He had more he had to give than I did. I only have thirty years of memories and he has a millennia. I was actually hoping he would stay sleeping like this. The longer Naruto-chan can go without that… thing's influence, the better. If that fox never wakes up it will be too soon." Kushina felt a yawn coming and tried to stifle it. Unfortunately, Shiyore saw it and transformed into a sixteen year old version of herself.

"Sleep, kaa-chan. I will watch after him. You need to be rested for tonight when he comes. He doesn't come for me, you know. It's always for you. He's a momma's boy but he needs his kaa-chan awake to do that. As much as he trusts me, it's because I always helped him. He trusts you because you're his mother which makes it pure. It's my job to protect him and that includes protecting him from disappointment. So sleep."

Kushina couldn't even argue as Shiyore forced her to lay down. A smile on her lips was the last action she took before she fell into a dreamless sleep. That feeling of happiness from her daughter feeling so protective of her son and her son being loved by more than just herself remained throughout it though.

"Now let's see what you're good at so I can teach you when you get here, okay, onii-chan?"Shiyore, once more as a loli, asked to the crystal ball as Sasori began to teach Naruto about seals using a sealing scroll."Making sure you can protect yourself is also a part of my job."


	4. Chapter IV

**Red Sands**

**Chapter ****IV**

Sasori glanced across the campfire where his apprentice lay asleep, back turned to him. The boy was definitely surprising him each day they continued to know each other. Despite being an Uzumaki, he grasped the control exercises fairly quickly. It was more impressive once he found out both the parentage and the burden his cousin had inherited. There was no mistaking that the boy had potential.

He recalled a few meetings with Bunpuku, an elderly monk and the jinchuuriki of the Ichibi during the time he lived there. The Ichibi intrigued him very much from a young age. Its ability to control sand was very much reminiscent of puppetry he had always thought. Talking with the monk had taught him a few things about the bijuu that he doubted more than a handful of people knew.

The bijuu weren't actually completely evil themselves, according to Bunpuku. The monk relayed to him some stories that Shukaku had let slip about the other bijuu. Each of them had their own personalities, their own likes and dislikes, their own ambitions and dreams; the bijuu were just as human as any ninja, samurai or civilian.

Another thing was that Bunpaku had somehow learned from Shukaku was an interesting tidbit of information. The children of jinchuuriki are special. A portion of the bijuu's power is inherited by the human child that can be used without any influence of the beast itself. It is very similar to what Ginkaku and Kinkaku were said to be able to do after consuming portions of the Kyuubi's chakra from inside its stomach. The jinchuuriki heirs, however, had another special quality.

All the way back to the Rikudo Sennin, bloodlines were bred into the children of jinchuuriki when the bijuu's chakra mixed with human chakra. If Sasori could trust what Bunpuku had told him, then what would Naruto gain? Would he awaken something thought lost to his branch? Would something entirely new form? Or maybe with him being a jinchuuriki of the very same bijuu that his mother held during his birth would prevent anything from forming? It was quite a predicament…

Of course, that wasn't to say it would particularly _matter _if he had a bloodline or not. With what he would eventually be teaching the boy, he'd be able to utilize any and every bloodline he could find someone else possessing. The boy was old enough to catch on to what he would teach but young enough that wouldn't be hung up on any of the useless _morals _that most people had regarding turning a human into a puppet.

Sasori had to shake those thoughts away. Chiyo wasn't here… she wouldn't understand his genius. No one was ever able to. That wasn't necessarily true… was it? No… there was one person. She even helped him develop the process to make human puppets.

This was no time to be caught up on past events and old flames though… he had a new mission. He would make Naruto into the very best puppet master in the Elemental Nations. Even better than himself, better than Chiyo, better than the very first puppeteer that created the art. Naruto would trump all of them. That was his goal.

Looking down at a scroll he had in his lap, he opened it to reveal a blank slate. Unrolling it further, he pulled out a thin brush with ink on it and began to write on it. Uzumaki Kushina is what the final phrase came out to be. As her name was written several dozen names manifested above it. Just below Kushina's name, Sasori wrote down Naruto's. While he watched, the characters glowed momentarily before becoming solid.

The name just above Kushina's was something that Sasori expected. Uzumaki Reiko and Uzumaki Kenichi were the next in line above her. Those were two individuals that he knew of well, though only by story passed through his parents and grandmother. They were the last pair of clan heads of the Uzumaki Clan before its fall during the Second Shinobi World War.

Kenichi was not actually a true Uzumaki except through his marriage. In fact, he wasn't even from Uzushiogakure but rather was a samurai from Tetsu no Kuni who ended up as the diplomatic emissary stationed in the Village Hidden in the Whirling Tides. He was, in fact, the younger brother to Mifune and, while not as skilled as the head of Tetsu no Kuni, was an accomplished warrior in his own right.

Reiko, on the other hand, was the princess of the Uzumaki Clan. Eldest of five children and niece of the infamous Uzumaki Mito, Reiko gained her own fame as a sealmistress at the age of 13. After mastering all of the known seals the Uzumaki had created, the girl then began to form her own style of fighting that allowed her to create solid sealing matrices out of her chakra on any surface, including the air.

There was even a story of a battle in which it was said that she was able to seal the ninjutsu of one hundred shinobi aimed at her and then redirect it as one, concentrated blast that pierced right through one of the mountains in Rai no Kuni. The hollowed out landform was still there as proof. Rai no Kuni named it Mt. Reiko as a show of respectr. She could have easily done that very same thing to the hidden village or the Daimyou's palace, after all.

Much good that respect did her village after her death. Had she still been living, Kenichi might have been able to pull something together to wipe out the invaders of Uzushiogakure. Sasori shook his head at the thought… there was no changing the past.

Instead, he could only prepare for the future. One such way he could already see very clearly. Given the fact that the Uzumaki's Kaiki gave them ease of access to not only their Uzumaki ancestors' skills but also the non-Uzumaki to a degree, he had a few ideas. Naruto could definitely accomplish similar feats to Uzumaki Reiko, more or less. There was also Kenichi.

The closer in ancestry to the Uzumaki in question, the easier it was to access their foundational knowledge. Kushina was certainly talented in many ways, though weaponry and taijutsu were not among them. That meant that Kenichi was the closest ancestor that Naruto could emulate in order to gain close combat skills. It was, after all, better to fix a weakness early on. Puppeteers were stereotypically ill-suited to close combat, so if Sasori could get a problem fixed before it was even an issue, it was all the better.

There would be issues of teaching the boy anything regarding Kenichi's style however. He wasn't proficient in any sort of blade, let alone something as specific as a naginata… so how was Sasori to pass on the information to Naruto? That was an issue he would have to tackle later, he supposed.

For now, the easiest skills to pass on to Naruto would involve Kushina and Reiko. Both of them were heralded as sealmistresses, though in different ways. There was also the possibility of Naruto, potentially, being able to manifest his mother's Chakra Chains. That, by itself, would be a great addition to any puppeteer's arsenal.

How could he gain any insight on how the woman performed the technique though? It was likely in the Hokage's personal library since Kushina was a former jinchuuriki. Then there was the Uzumaki Clan Compound in Konoha. Both of them were far too risky to venture into however. Now that Sasori knew just who Naruto was and what he contained he knew that going anywhere even near the Hi no Kuni border would be an endeavor best saved for after Naruto was at least A-rank if not S-rank.

Aside from that pesky little Hiden, there was still Kushina's abilities with both Fuuton and Suiton to consider. She was quite the dangerous ninjutsu specialist, especially when combining it with the corrupted chakra of the Kyuubi. Sasori had seen the carnage that came as a result of the infamous Habanero playing a role and it was not pretty.

Water heated to a point that it almost looked like the corpses had been dipped inside a vat of boiling oil and blades of wind so searing that they cauterized the very lacerations they caused. She may as well have had the Boil Release and Scorch Release. The fact that she most certainly did not made it just a tad terrifying. What would happen if that burning chakra was placed behind a Katon nature?

Sasori felt a shiver in his spine. The odds of Naruto having a fire nature were actually pretty high _if _his father had had one. He still had no idea just who had fathered the boy. Then again, if the boy's father had either a wind or water affinity, it would make his that much stronger. Would the strength of an affinity affect the combination with the Kyuubi's taint? There was just so many questions regarding his charge that would only be answered as they tried new things.

There number of things he was beginning to want to pass on to the boy was only growing as his thoughts continued. Too many puppeteers of the recent generations didn't understand – too many shinobi in general actually. It didn't matter what you specialized in. There was always room to improve. Any art you could find that could somehow improve your style, that could fill gaps in your defense, that could end battles more quickly or that enhanced any single one of your strengths was a good thing. Specializing doesn't mean forgetting every other style, it means taking from every other style to improve your chosen art.

No matter. He would simply drill that into his apprentice and, even if it was just one person at a time, they could change the world how it was meant to be. The world would be his most glorious masterpiece. It would be the grandest puppet he ever created with only him pulling the strings connected to nations. His art would be immortal. Just as he one day would. Everything as it should be.

**[Naruto's Mindscape]**

"Kaa-chan! Kaa-chan!" Kushina looked towards where she knew the entrance was with a smile as Naruto appeared out of the hanging chains, Shiyore right behind him in her loli form. The boy immediately gave her a hug, bringing joy to the woman as she ruffled his scarlet spikes.

"Hello there, Naruto-chan." She replied as he pulled back, smiling wide. His happiness was infectious to her and before long she wore a matching grin. "Did you have fun with Sasori-san today?" The boy nodded his head. "Why don't you tell me about what you did today then?" The redhead's grin got wider, if that was even possible.

"We're in Grass Country right now and the plants are huge! Where we set up camp there's this mushroom that's bigger than the orphanage! Sensei also let me choose what I learn next so I chose seals!" Kushina smiled at that, forming a chair for her son right in front of her own which he sat in.

"What kind of seals is he teaching you?" She wondered.

"Well, only storage seals for now." Naruto became noticeably calmer. It was always like that. He'd come in, a ball of energy as bright as the Sun. After a few moments, it faded into something much more manageable. Though, it was becoming smaller and smaller with each passing week. Even though Kushina liked how energetic Naruto was when talking to her, she had to reluctantly agree with Shiyore that he needed to be able to put a lid on his emotions if he was going to be a puppet master and a shinobi in general.

"Storage seals are very important to gain a basis on fuinjutsu." Kushina commented. "My mother was a master at using them though I always preferred more… direct seals. Gravity seals, explosion tags, barrier seals and stasis seals were my preferred means in combat. Tsunade-sensei was never particularly pleased that I never took up medical seals outside of a few basic ones for my more… reckless techniques."

Naruto noticed the look in her eyes and the mischievous smile Kushina wore as she began remembering something. "Kaa-chan, can you tell me about your team? You talk about them a lot." Kushina looked at her son and smiled.

"Come sit in kaa-chan's lap and she'll tell you a story, okay?" Naruto nodded and carefully climbed into her lap as he did not wish to hurt her. As he finally was nestled comfortably, Kushina slowly stroked the boy's hair as she softly held him closer to her frame.

"One hundred years ago there was no such thing as Konohagakure. In fact, the only hidden villages that existed were the Hidden Grass Village and one other. Technically Uzu was not a hidden village at that point but more of a place where the Uzumaki and a few other clans living together for protection, but it may as well have been a hidden village. A century ago two gods among shinobi who were the heirs of the Senju and Uchiha were best friends. The problem was that their fathers hated each other immensely.

"When their fathers did, in fact, die, these two men took up the mantle of clan head. Hashirama of the Senju and Madara of the Uchiha came together in an alliance to halt the fighting between their clansmen and clanswomen for peace. Together, the two families formed a settlement that would become the standard for hidden villages. Other clans sought protection from the wars that raged and would come to join the village such as the Hyuuga, Aburame, Yamanaka, Akimichi and Inuzuka.

"Tsunade was the granddaughter of Hashirama and your great-aunt, Uzumaki Mito. She was also the student of the third Hokage. Did you ever meet him while you were in the village?" Naruto shook his head. "I didn't think so. Your father did hold his promise to me which I am eternally grateful for. I'm going off topic though, aren't I?

"After I was chosen to be the new jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi because of my special chakra and sent to Konoha, I was not the… most behaved of children. I felt it was unfair that I had to move just because I was born with a gift, so I lashed out. I vandalized, stole, beat up kids I didn't like and blackmailed the smarter kids to do my homework. I was quite the delinquent…" She sighed as she reminisced a bit more before shaking her head.

"When I finally was placed on a team, it was under Tsunade-sensei with Aburame Shibi and Gekko Hayate. Obaa-chan was… well, I won't deny that I thought I hated her at first. She always seemed to pick on me the most and hold me to a higher degree than Shibi or Hayate but I think that was just my teenage self thinking the world revolved around me. Years later I heard some of the things Shibi and Hayate recollected from our Genin days and apparently we all were equally 'trained'. I think that Tsunade-sensei should have just called it torture…"

Kushina paused, smiling. "I promised you a story though, didn't I? So, why don't I actually keep my word then? I think that I'll tell you about one of my genin missions. Which one though…?" She thought to herself. "You're in Grass Country now, so why don't I tell you about my first time coming here?"

"That sounds like a good idea!" He agreed, getting comfortable against his mother as she kept him close. Kushina smiled and thought back to the first time she had ever been to Kusa no Kuni until finally recalling that mission.

"It was a bandit raid, one of the most common C-rank missions. The village that made the request was on the border of Hi no Kuni so it decided to call upon the aid of Konoha instead of Kusa. It was pretty clear that the bandits would be rather resistant as when we were about hour outside the village, they attacked our group. I suppose they thought that between Tsunade and myself they could make some profit on the slave market."

Kushina watched Naruto's face for some sort of reaction. Finding none she assumed that he had no idea what that term meant. His innocence was refreshing though it would have to be destroyed if he was to survive in this world. She _hated _that her baby would need to be callous just to stay alive but there was no way he could ever be a civilian. A jinchuuriki would never be allowed that privilege.

"There were only about ten of them so it wasn't too difficult to take care of themhandle. Shibi took care of interrogating those who survived and learned exactly where the bandits were based from. We turned the survivors over to the village that hired us for their trial. It didn't take long after that for us to reach the camp where the rest of the bandits resided. We didn't realize what was in store for us though…"

"What happened, kaa-chan?" Naruto asked worriedly. Kushina smiled to him, ruffling his spikes.

"Oh, don't worry too much Naruto-chan. We did survive it. It was just unexpected what happened. The bandits were led by a group of nukenin and made the mission much, much harder for us." She paused in thought. "I think that was my first fight against another ninja that wanted to kill me.

"The bandits weren't too difficult to take out but when the nukenin showed themselves they ran away anyways. We were left with a trio of shinobi. One against Shibi, Hayate and me and the other two against Tsunade-sensei. I now know that the person we faced was an ex-Chuunin of the Sand village. It took us quite a bit to understand how his fan style worked and it involved more than a few cuts on each of us. Once we finally understood it though, the three of us made a plan.

"None of us had a fire affinity, unfortunately. We had something just as good though. As the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, I had access to the Kyuubi's chakra. Due to the Fox's immense hatred, its chakra has become so filled with malevolence that it actually burns anything it touches. By adding some of it to my own ninjutsu, I was able to make new forms of ninjutsu that no one else except for maybe the users of Boil Release and Scorch Release could match.

"Using one of the simplest wind techniques I knew, **Fuuton: Daitoppa**, I was able to ignite his attack, distracting and hurting him in the process. Shibi and Hayate came in right behind me and struck before he could. Hayate disarmed the man while Shibi latched his kikaichu onto him, knocking him unconscious. It was such a momentous achievement to me, to finally defeat someone stronger in a real fight, that I even took the fan from him. I think it's still in the vault back at the Uzumaki Compound in Konoha."

"What about the two your sensei fought?" Naruto asked curiously.

Kushina chuckled at that particular question. "She had been watching our fight. She took out the two she fought within a few seconds and wanted to see how we would do as a team. As soon as we finished our fight, she healed us and we were on our way, three prisoners in tow. I think that was when I realized just how large of a gap between our power levels there was.

"That was probably the same moment I decided I would have to train much, much harder if I was ever to become the Hokage. I never did make that goal… but I did help your father to and being an ANBU Captain is a pretty good achievement, I suppose. My proudest moment, the one that I would gladly give up everything for, was when you were born though, Naruto-chan. My new dream is to help you become the best ninja and the best man you can be."

Naruto grinned widely at that and hugged her tightly, his arms around her neck. "Thank you, kaa-chan! I love you!" Kushina smiled just as big and hugged him back.

"Kaa-chan loves you too, Naruto-chan. More than anything in the whole world and she'll make sure no one hurts you. That's a promise, dattebane." From the shadows, Shiyore watched the scene with a small smile in place on her teenage self's face.

_ We'll make sure nothing comes to hurt you, Naruto-chan. You'll get training and be able to fight your own battles, but nothing will survive even the small thought of causing permanent harm to you in any way. _

Her form shifted back down to the loli as a twisted grin formed. _If they even try… I'll enjoy the screams of those foolish __humans__ and make them pay for their sins in blood… _

Once more she shifted, this time to her adult form. _No one will hurt my onii-chan if I have anything to say about it._

**[][][]**

"Remember to focus Naruto. One wrong move and it could mean the difference between life and death when using this particular seal. It is a last defense and anything that requires you to use it should never be taken lightly." Sasori warned his student who stood about ten feet away from him. The younger redhead nodded his head once.

"I understand, Sasori-sensei."_ I've been practicing the last two weeks nonstop to master baa-chan's signature. I know I can do it._" Sasori nodded to the boy as he pulled out a scroll. In a cloud of smoke, the first puppet he ever built came out. Karasu was made entirely of wood and stood about as tall as a teenage boy. Its head had three eyes arranged in a triangular formation as well as a mouth that clicked each time it moved up and down. Four arms – two to each side – were at the ready with the palms facing Naruto as its body and legs hung about two inches off the ground. Naruto could feel the strings attached to the puppet from Sasori's fingers and watched as those palms opened to reveal small protrusions that extended.

Naruto formed a ram seal immediately and a large sealing array appeared in the air in front of him. **"Uzumaki Fuinjutsu: Kuukioku!" **He announced. The air shimmered in front of him just in time as the protrusions on the puppet's palms began rapid firing senbon right for him. Naruto kept the array up, catching all of the needles before they hit him. As they made contact with the midair seal, each one disappeared from sight.

In another cloud of smoke, Sasori brought out a second puppet. This one appeared to be a scorpion made entirely out of steel, about four feet tall with a two foot tail. Its pincers were serrated on the inner edges and eight eyes sat atop its head. The steel plating on its abdomen was segmented to provide more protection and smoke rose from the tip of its tail, showing that it doubled as a flamethrower.

The scorpion puppet scuttled around to Naruto's left side and opened a chamber where its mouth would be. From it, a kunai fired at the boy every two seconds, a clicking noise as each new kunai was loaded into the firing chamber echoing across the field. The jinchuuriki concentrated and separated his hands, each one forming a one-handed ram seal. He kept his right hand in front of him and his left one went to his left side.

As he did this, the seal lost half of its size. A second one formed to his left side to absorb the kunai while he had to constantly move his right hand to seal away any senbon that were outside the diameter of his front-facing seal. He had no time to complain nor any inclination to as his entire focus was on keeping the sharp objects _away _from his body.

Sasori watched the boy with pride. It had taken about three days initially, but Naruto was able to capitalize on the Kaiki's ability and unlock the secret to using midair seals with his chakra. Another week and a half and he was already at this level.

It was likely due to both how close in relation to Reiko he was and also how late in life that Reiko had Kushina. With both close proximity in the Kaiki and how much more experience with that particular technique Reiko was in her thirties than when she first created it, the Foundation laid for Naruto was exceptional.

After a few more minutes of the scorpion puppet and Karasu shifting the angle at which they shot, Sasori pulled them back and re-sealed the pair of them. "Very good, Naruto. With practice, the size of your seals shouldn't fluctuate. I also know that Reiko-hime was said to be able to form and move her seals without handseals and even was known to use up to eight of them at once. It would take quite a bit of training for you to get up to that level, so I don't think we'll aim for that seeing as how this is just a supplementary skill for your puppetry."

Naruto released his ram seals and watched the arrays disappeared. The chakra became tendrils before it returned to his body in wisps of ethereal blue. As it came back, he sighed in relief and fell to his back. "That was hard, Sasori-sensei." He explained. "Splitting my focus like that and still keeping my chakra flowing constantly while having to move the seals to make sure nothing got past… it's really hard."

He smiled and walked over to the boy. "It will serve as good training for kugutsu then. Keeping your focus split between moving your puppets and knowing your changing environment is an essential skill to stay alive in the field. If this lesson helps you learn that later down the line then it's all the better for you. Trust me, it will come easier, especially with your sensory abilities being involved."

Naruto nodded and took Sasori's hand as the puppet master helped him to his feet. "Where are we headed today, sensei?" Naruto wondered curiously. The puppet master began walking away from the rocky area they were in, his apprentice tagging along behind him as they came to a sheer cliff face not far from the area they had trained in. Sasori began walking down the side of the cliff, his cousin only a step behind him the whole way.

"Well, Earth Country has served its purpose for now. My spies have given me some leads to follow for some of the plans I wanted to do. I think the best thing to do now is to follow one of them that leads straight to Demon Country. The Hidden Village there is small and poses little risk even if we are detected, so it will serve as a good place for some more training. It should take around ten days to get to our destination, which allows time for you to begin training in something else."

Naruto watched as Sasori jumped to the ground and followed suit. "You mean either genjutsu or elemental chakra, right?" Naruto asked curiously. Sasori nodded his head. Sasori continued down a path, forcing Naruto to follow as he thought about it. Beside him, Shiyore materialized next to him.

"The decision is pretty difficult, eh? Let's see… if you choose genjutsu it will help your chakra control and deception. You're still pretty physically weak, being only six years old, so it would definitely help you hide from bandits and weaker shinobi if you need to escape or just want to set up a trap. On the other hand, learning elemental chakra means that you would finally have something more offensive to utilize and kaa-san could even teach you how to mix tou-san's chakra with the techniques. You've got a decent defense against ranged attacks right now with your seals and kaa-san can teach you more of those, but any offense relies on you being able to first seal away energy or matter into them."

Naruto glanced at Shiyore then back to Sasori. It was combat versus utility in a nutshell. He would either have something to end battles faster or something to help him avoid fights that he couldn't win. Making up his mind, Naruto grinned. "Sensei, I think I'd like to learn genjutsu next. They'll probably be better for my chakra control and even though I can't directly hurt anyone with them, it's good for other things."

Sasori nodded. "So, you're playing it safe and going down the cautious route? That's a good thing for an aspiring puppeteer. Sticking to the shadows and manipulating from both the darkness and the light are skills we need for our craft. By making others see, hear and feel what you want them to, by controlling the reality they perceive, it lines up the perfect opportunity to either strike them down or to strike a deal." He nodded to himself. "Yes, genjutsu works very well, especially with your Fuinjutsu training.

"We'll continue your lessons in control and seals but I'll start up some theory and practice in some basic genjutsu. With the control you already have, I think starting you in a few C-rank illusion will be a good idea. I'll have to look into Reiko's lineage, but you'll likely have an ancestor within five generations of her that used genjutsu to some degree. If I can find one and use illusions similar to ones that he or she used then it will help you understand the fundamentals much easier."

"You mean like how you taught me the fundamentals of storage seals with Reiko-baachan's Kuukioku?" Naruto asked. "And how you began me with barrier seals in my Fuinjutsu training because that was my kaa-chan's specialty?" Sasori nodded his assent. "So, if I learn using a style similar to my Uzumaki ancestors, it's easier, right?"

"That's almost correct. Remember that you can also learn easier using your non-Uzumaki ancestors as well. However that is only the case using one generation. You can use your father as a foundation. You can use your mother's father as a foundation. You can use Reiko-hime's mother – who was an Uzumaki only by marriage – as a foundation and so on.

"The further from you they are, the weaker the foundation is unless the foundation is strengthened by multiple ancestor's practicing the same thing. In your particular lineage, Fuinjutsu has the strongest foundation, which means it will be the easiest to learn especially since all five branches of the art were used heavily by several of your ancestors."

Naruto nodded, showing his understanding. "That makes sense, sensei. I'll make sure to practice all sorts of things then! If I learn a lot, then I can make things easier for my descendants, right?" Sasori chuckled at the innocent notion, but nodded anyways.

"Yes, that is true. And you can teach your own branch of the Uzumaki how to do all sorts of things as well. I have some knowledge of many different subjects and I can help you learn along the way, my apprentice. For now though, let us focus on the here and now. I should start by asking you a question. How much do you know about what genjutsu are and how they function?"

At the query from his teacher, Naruto thought back to Shiyore's lesson on the art. "Genjutsu are illusions that are formed when you inject your chakra into another chakra source to manipulate another human, a Summon or an animal's five senses, right?" Naruto asked tentatively, gaining a nod of assent from the puppet master. "You can inject chakra with eye contact, a chakra pulse, physical contact or with a certain, non-elemental ninjutsu."

"Very good, Naruto." Sasori responded. "It is a simple concept to understand for some, though others can only get so far as dispelling genjutsu. Do you know how to dispel genjutsu, by chance? I know that you know how to use two genjutsu to some degree because of our first meeting, but dispelling is just as, if not more, important in a lesson of illusions."

"I know that one way is to reverse the flow of your chakra but I could never really get that down. I have a lot of chakra so I learned the other way. I gather some of my chakra in my stomach and knead it together until there's some pressure. Then I release it in an outward pulse that disrupts the chakra in the genjutsu."

"That is definitely the much greater option of the two. With as much chakra as we Uzumaki hold, using a chakra pulse is much quicker and easier than reversing our entire chakra flow throughout our body. This makes it all much easier for your genjutsu training since you've already got a little experience with the basics."

"So, it looks like teaching you a few lower level illusions in the mindscape whenever kaa-chan was too tired to talk was pretty great, huh?" Naruto glanced to Shiyore, noticing that she was in her adult form when she said that. "I guess that means Shiyore-sensei is pretty great, eh?" Naruto smiled a little as she said that, nodding to her. "That's right I am! Now if only kaa-chan would acknowledge how amazing I am!"

"With that in mind, you'll have to remember that I am not well-versed in genjutsu." Sasori explained. "I am a puppeteer first and foremost and any other arts I know are supplementary in nature. I will teach you what I can but anything outside that which you wish to explore will have to be done on your own. For most things I will be teaching you, that will be the case, unfortunately."

"I understand that, sensei." Naruto replied. "I'm sure that I'll find a way." With a mischievous grin, he looked towards his half-sister, who smirked in response. "As long as you teach me what you can, I will manage." Sasori nodded at that statement.

"More often than not, the puppet-wielding ninja rely more on resourcefulness and strategy than full-out power so you will need to understand these. Even if you do have the potential to overcome such a stereotype quite easily given your… hidden talents, we'll call them." Sasori hummed to himself a little before nodding. "For now, what is most important is laying down a foundation for your later training."

"Sasori-sensei, do you mean Fuinjutsu, genjutsu and elemental ninjutsu will help in puppetry training?" Sasori answered with a nod of his head.

"Fuinjutsu will be extremely useful for storing many puppets as well as making your puppets more versatile in ways I'll be showing you when you make your first one. Genjutsu teaches you how to manipulate another person and also refines your chakra control. Elemental ninjutsu teaches you shape manipulation. Genjutsu and elemental ninjutsu are extremely useful because when combining the chakra control from the former and the shape manipulation of the latter, it grants a foundation for learning the chakra strand technique, which lays the foundation for the entirety of kugutsu."

Naruto thought about that for a second, silent while Shiyore spoke. "That's… I never imagined anything like that. The arts are so different from each other, yet by taking their most basic components and mixing them, it allows you take advantage from radically different training to form something new and similar to both of them." The woman grinned. "This will be interesting, to say the least. I can't wait to see what else this clever human has planned for you." Naruto had to agree. He really wanted to see what else Sasori had planned for training.


	5. Chapter V

**Red Sands**

**Chapter V**

**[Somewhere in Demon Country]**

Crackling from the fire pit, embers popped up every so often as two men sat close to it, one of them poking it with a stick every so often. The two were relaxed, drinking sake straight from a bottle that they passed to each other. They obviously did not expect any sort of conflict to meet them there.

That made them prime targets.

"**Magen: Yamigakure no Jutsu…" **Naruto whispered the command quietly as he head a ram seal. To anyone without a dojutsu, he disappeared into the moonless night. Jumping from his tree branch to the floor, chakra cushioning his landing so that no sound was made, he moved quickly.

Pulling a kunai in each hand, he let them fly forward at the pair. In the process of passing the bottle of alcohol, the two men dropped to the ground, unconscious. Staying to the shadows, Naruto approached the assortment of tents – five in total – and held a ram seal.

He could sense very small chakra signatures, seven in total. These were little more than a small band, but Sasori had given him a mission so he would follow through. Placing his hand on one of the tents, an array spread over its fabric before a white bubble of energy surrounded the tent. **"Fuin: Oto Kekkai." **He whispered to himself.

With the sound barrier in place, he very carefully made his way into the tent. Opening his Void Storage seal, Naruto held his hand in front of it and caught a kunai that fell out of it. The seal emitted a bluish-white light that cast threatening shadows over the boy's face. Stepping forward, Naruto raised the kunai up high and slammed it down into the neck of the sleeping bandit. Eyes opening wide at the steel blade lodged in his throat, the man began choking on his own blood.

Gripping the kunai, he used chakra to give him enough strength to pull it back out. The man looked up at the small boy who had ambushed him in his sleep, fear in his eyes even as he bled out, staining the sleeping bag and dirt he slept on.

Evening out his breath, Naruto gripped the kunai tightly and stepped out of the tent. As he came back into the light of the fire, he noted the splotches of red on his clothing and his hands. He then turned to the other four tents and steeled himself for what he had to do. Sasori-sensei said it was a lesson he had to learn by doing this. Shiyore-sensei told him he couldn't go into the mindscape until he did it. Kaa-chan looked sad about it, but agreed it was something that had to be done.

That's why he endured the strange pit in his stomach that this caused. He didn't understand what the feeling was but he stuffed it down so that he could finish his first mission from his two sensei and make his kaa-chan proud. That thought helped more than anything to get rid of it, so it was what he held on to.

He held it as tightly as the kunai that was soon stained with the blood of six other bandits. Wanted by the nearby village, condemned by Sasori and executed by Naruto, they were doomed the moment they set up camp.

**[Kazangakure]**

Deep within Demon Country, the largest mountain rose high enough to split the sky. Smoke rose from the titanic cone, proving it was a volcano, though its dormancy was up for questioning by anyone willing to ask.

Around the volcano, a path was carved into the stone that curved from the base up to the summit, the only visible path up to the mouth of the volcano.

Within the volcano itself was something that defied logic and reason, but still existed – and had existed almost as long as the Five Great Nations – a hidden village of shinobi. Situated inside the inner walls of the volcano, multiple buildings hung, half-built into the wall itself. Bridges extended between buildings, ramps ascending and descending from each of them, connecting the village together.

Halfway between the mouth of the volcano and the magma, a spire sat, connected to the volcano's walls by a dozen bridges stretching outwards. The spire rose up to the mouth of the volcano, several more of the bridges connecting it to the walls at different levels, including the very top, though only one bridge extended at the mouth.

Sasori and Naruto stood on the rim of the volcano, a large wall extending to either side of them around the volcano, a gate easily five times their combined height open as two Chuunin guards stood guarding the village from anyone who shouldn't be inside. "Good afternoon." Sasori spoke politely to the guards, his dutiful apprentice quiet and seemingly in thought.

"Afternoon." One of the guards replied stoicly. She stood taller than Sasori by at least a head, silver hair pulled back into a tight ponytail and a scar from the corner of her lip, extending up the side of her face like some sort of deranged half smile. Her skin was tanned – likely from the constant heat of the volcano. She wore a Chuunin vest over a red shirt and brown pants, boots instead of sandals on her feet. Hanging from her waist were a pair of tanto.

"My little brother and I were wondering if we could possibly gain entrance into your village? We are traveling merchants and have wares we thought we might sell here." Sasori wore a smile that not even an experienced psychological profiler might tell was fake. The silver-haired kunoichi nodded, expecting nothing less of the man. There was little other reason for someone to trek up a volcano. He must have been very desperate to.

"I just need to see some identification." She replied to him. Sasori complied easily, handing over a few documents – permits, an ID card and a list of his inventory. Looking over the documents, the Chuunin nodded and handed them back. "Thank you and enjoy your time here in the village."

Sasori nodded and walked past the pair of guards, Naruto following behind. When they were out of hearing range, Sasori spoke. "You're becoming very talented, Naruto-kun. She didn't question the genjutsu on the paperwork that you placed there. After your performance at the bandit camp two nights ago as well, I see that you will make a fine apprentice indeed."

Naruto nodded to the puppet master. "Thank you sensei. I know my genjutsu isn't strong enough to trick anyone experienced which is why I used a seal on the back of the documents to strengthen them. The pages will show whatever the person with the nearest chakra source wants to see."

Sasori chuckled at that. "Clever. That is something a specialized ninja would never be able to understand. When you are weaker than your opposition, using your arts in combinations can give you a large advantage. As you train more and expand your repertoire, you will find more and more collaborations between your skills to overwhelm your opponents."

Naruto nodded. "Thank you, sensei." He replied a bit tiredly.

"Your mission still weighs heavily upon you." Sasori stated. It was not a question, but an observation. "As a ninja, killing is a part of our job description." He explained. "It is not something everyone can come to terms with, but you handled both the action and the aftereffects very well. Most genin faint or lose their stomachs after the fact. You are not only more skilled physically and mentally but also emotionally than one of those green-eared Academy graduates and it's only been nine weeks."

The words hit Naruto's ears and he recognized the praise when he heard it. Three days ago, he would have relished the compliments from one of the three people he considered family. Now, he just felt like the world would swallow him. He took the lives of nine people who never harmed him. True, they had hurt others, but…

"Naruto, listen to me." The blonde glanced to the right and saw Shiyore walking alongside him in her teenage form. "You will take more lives before all is done, Naruto-kun. Those men would not have hesitated to killing you. Not everyone in this world is as loving as your mother towards you. What you need to remember is this: you need to do everything in your power to protect those you care about and that includes killing. It doesn't matter if they've wronged you or anyone else, only those you care about matter and everyone else is a tool. Have I ever lied to you or steered you wrong? Have I ever done anything but look out for your well-being? I just want to keep you safe and happy, Naruto-kun."

The blonde looked down at the ground, lost in thought when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking at Sasori, he saw the redhead smiling at him as he squeezed his shoulder. "Why don't you do a little exploring around while I take care of this? You know what my chakra feels like, so when you feel me heading back to the gate, just come find me, alright?" Naruto felt himself nod. "Here, there's more than enough ryou in here for you to buy anything you'd like." He handed the boy a small bag which he gratefully took and placed inside a seal on the inside of the coat he wore.

As the man began walking forward, Naruto looked back at Shiyore. "I trust you… and I know that you just want to help me." He began walking towards the large spire in the center of the village. "I think what you said is probably right too…" Shiyore smiled at the admission, glad she got through to him. "I was just thinking that doesn't that mean that I took someone precious from another person though? Even if the people I killed raped and murdered innocents dozens of times… someone still may have found them precious."

Shiyore stepped closer to Naruto and grasped his hand tightly. When the boy looked at her again, he saw she had become her six year old self. "Onii-chan, please don't be sad. I'm here for you. Kaa-chan is here for you. Aren't we enough for you? Do you really need anyone else beside us? We both love you so much, isn't that enough for you?" Naruto smiled to the girl, feeling himself squeeze her hand softly.

"Of course you're more than enough, Shi-chan. I love you and kaa-chan too. I… I guess I'm just feeling guilty…" His half-sister let her fox-like ears fall a little and her tails slump before suddenly grinning.

"I know what we should do!" She declared. Pulling him one direction, she let her tails wave excitedly. "Come on, it will be really fun!" She exclaimed to only him. Her energy was contagious and Naruto couldn't help the small smile that formed on his lips as he followed after the girl that only he could see. Whatever she had planned was probably fun.

**[Kazangakure, Red Light District] **

"Speak and make it quick." Sasori spoke coldly, much differently than the persona he showed in front of Naruto. The target of his command nodded quickly from the alley the two were both occupying. The shadows hid both of them, but Sasori knew who he was talking to thanks to chakra strands connected to multiple parts of his body.

"There's two pieces of information I offer, Sasori-sama." The other person spoke, a light feminine voice making its way to his ears. It was a voice he knew as sophisticated, a noble under his command. "The first is from Demon Country. The priestess of that country recently lost her life, though the events behind it are hard to decipher through all the rumors. Her daughter, Shion, has been inducted to take her place and shows signs of holding the same Sight her mother possessed."

"Interesting…" Sasori mumbled to himself. "I will remember that for future reference. It could prove useful to have a good relationship with the seeress of Demon Country. What of the other rumor you have for me?" The shadowed figure nodded, continuing.

"The Daimyou of our country has been killed." She explained. "There are many who could have gained much from such an action. I know none of my own house performed the act and the entire country is awaiting the next in line to take the throne. With the assassin not yet caught, the princess cannot yet be coronated. The Royal Guard refuses to allow her safety to be at risk and for good reason. One of the suspects happens to be her younger brother, next in line after her."

Sasori smiled at this bit of information. It could prove useful in the very immediate future. "Thank you, Hinora-san. You are free to go until I call on you again. We will be seeing each other very soon…" With that, he was gone.

**[Konzanko's Ramen]**

"Where are we, Shiyore-chan?" Naruto asked curiously as came to a food stand with six bar stools at a bar in front of where a middle-aged woman stood, smiling brightly. She had short, white hair that only just hid her ears and bright green eyes full of life. Laugh lines were prominent around her mouth as she spoke.

"Welcome to Kanzanko's Ramen, little one! I'm Lady Kanzanko, can I get you anything?" At Shiyore's insistence, he climbed up into the barstool and sat, looking at her as if thinking.

"Kaa-chan used to come here every time she had a mission to Kazangakure, onii-chan." Shiyore explained to him. "Ask for a bowl of the pork ramen, trust me. It's really delicious." Shiyore was sitting in the stool next to him, smiling as if she was remembering something particularly wonderful. "It will help you feel better, trust me."

"Can I have a bowl of… pork ramen?" Naruto asked the woman, who smiled as she wrote down his order and sent it off to the kitchen.

"My son will have it out for you in a few minutes. What are you doing out all alone…?"

Naruto realized that she didn't have anything to call him, so he remembered what Sasori had told him to do in this sort of situation. "My name is Takashi." He offered to her. "My tou-san is a traveling merchant and we're here to sell what's left of our wares to the shops around town before we leave to go buy more stock in Mizu no Kuni." He explained. Sasori told him that civilians usually preferred general, yet detailed, statements. It was a tactic that the puppetmaster used time and time again to prevent them from asking any further questions after they left.

"Oh, so it's a family affair? That's just like this stand. My father built it himself in the years when the Hidden Villages were only infantile and took us through two village leaders before handing it off to me. When I die, I'll pass it on to my son and then he'll pass it on to his first born. It's always been a family business and it will stay that way until the world ends."

"Oh, that sounds just like the Kaiki." Shiyore commented. "It passes on skills from parent to child going all the way back to the Rikudo Sennin himself. You could say the Kaiki is a family business. From the moment you're born, you had certain inheritances that were yours rightfully that no one can take from you. It gets passed on each generation, the 'business' expanding based on how much work you put in. So, kaa-chan and your tou-san are just passing on the business to you!"

Naruto smiled at Shiyore's comparison, already glad he had come here with her. _She's right, they passed everything on to me. I have to keep going, no matter what. Kaa-chan's reason for me to be strong was to protect everyone I found precious… I can't disappoint her! I have to come through with my promise to make her proud of me._

"Oh, here you are, Takashi-chan." Naruto looked up, seeing a bowl in the woman's hands that he took from her and placed in front of himself.

"Itadakimasu!" He chanted as he split a pair of chopsticks in front of him began to take his first bite. His eyes widened at the taste of the simple dish, just noodles, broth and some pork, but so much more. "This is delicious…" He muttered as he continued to eat.

Lady Kanzanko smiled as she watched him consume her son's cooking. He reminded her of another redhead that she served many years back… Aside from the hair color, they seemed very different however. That woman was much louder and brasher while this boy was more reserved and seemed to always be thinking about something.

After two bowls of pork, Naruto thanked the woman, and paid her for the food. Walking away from the stand with Shiyore in tow, he felt Sasori's chakra moving from the location it had been for the duration of their stay. "Sensei is leaving apparently." Naruto muttered, getting a nod from the now adult Shiyore, who looked serious.

"Do you feel the other signature, Naruto?" The kitsune asked him, gaining a look of confusion until something hit his senses like a brick to the head. "It's dark and the source is twice as large as yours. It's headed right for the village. We need to move out, now." Naruto agreed whole-heartedly as he began moving towards his sensei's location. They needed to get out of the village quickly if they wanted to avoid raising suspicion.

There was no doubting that the signature approaching was filled with bloodlust,

**[Village Leader's Office]**

"Shin-sama! Shin-sama!" Looking up from his desk of paperwork, a man saw a Chuunin walk in. Shin, as he was called, had a pair of eyes brown as the volcano and a topknot of hair the color of molten lava. The man stood, revealing that he had a pair of heavy looking gauntlets hanging from his waist. Since the man wasn't strong enough to be called a kage, there wasn't actually a uniform for the office. What he wore was a short-sleeved brown shirt and ANBU pants, a pair of boots instead of sandals a brown flak jacket.

"What has happened?" The man asked calmly. There was no use in being over emotional. If there was a problem, fix it had always been his mantra as emotions only hindered the process. They had their place, but off the battle field. The Chuunin was bent over, trying to catch his breath. When he stood straight again, the Chuunin had fear locked deep in his eyes.

"Shin-sama… there's a demon heading here. My entire squad… gone… we tried to stop him but it was no use! Every time we stabbed him in a vital area, he took the pain like it was nothing! Then he started using… black magic. Whenever one of us was cut, he would make this seal on the ground from his own blood, lick our blood off his weapon and stab himself! Whatever injury he inflicted, whoever he cut sustained as well! He's a demon from hell and he claimed that he wanted to sacrifice Kazangakure to someone named Jashin-sama!"

Shin steeled his eyes at the mention of the god. "So, there are survivors left of the cult. Thank you, please get some rest and take the rest of the week off. I will take care of this with a little help from from a few Jounin."

"Hai, Shin-sama! Arigatou!" The Chuunin announced before swiftly leaving the room. The more space between him and that… monster with the scythe, the better.

**[Outside Kazangakure]**

Under the guise of two civilians in a Henge covered by a double-layered genjutsu, Sasori and Naruto made it out of Kazangakure without anyone questioning them. As soon as they were down the path and at the base of the volcano, they let it go and began walking. "Do you sense it, Naruto?" Sasori asked.

"Yes, the signature is heading this way faster than I can run. Another signature about as large as mine is coming from Kazangakure followed by seven other signatures ranging in strength. Do you think they're coming after us, sensei?" Sasori seemed to be in thought before shaking his head.

"No, our chakra is suppressed very well. I think what is happening is that whoever the signature coming this way is happens to be a threat to Kazan. The strong signature leading the other seven is probably either the village leader or someone directly under him in the chain of command. There is going to be a fight here very soon. The question is, will we participate at all?"

Naruto looked at his sensei, wondering what he was thinking. "I don't think I'm ready to be involved yet, sensei." He admitted. "I don't have any really offensive moves. Just about the only thing I can do is perform sneak attacks." Sasori nodded his head. "What are we going to do then?"

"What we will do is observe. It may be a good thing for you to see." With that said, the puppet master jumped into the trees surrounding the path they walked on, followed closely by his apprentice. They didn't have to wait long before the two parties met.

The dark signature he felt looked to be a very pale man with greased back, silver hair. He wore a black robe as his only clothing and an amulet around his neck that was an inverted triangle inside a circle. In his right hand he gripped a scythe with three red blades, each one dripping with flesh blood. There was a dark smirk on the man's face as he licked his lips excitedly.

"Jashin-sama will be very pleased with your sacrifices!" The man shouted at his opponents, who Sasori whispered to him were led by Haryuu Shin, the Fourth Village Leader of Kazangakure who was an A-rank shinobi. The other were all dressed in ANBU gear and wore various animal-themed masks. "Help me gain his full favor with the blood of your infidel village!"

Shin, wearing his gauntlets, regarded the man calmly. "I do not know who you are, but the cult of you god was destroyed over a decade ago. We do not need a revival of those murderous psychopaths. I will end it here today by taking you out."

"Heh… that's fucking hilarious!" The now accused cultist commented. "And the name's Hidan, though I doubt you fuckers will live long enough for that to be useful to you." Twirling his scythe a bit, he rested it on his shoulder. "I'll say one thing though, Jashin is really excited to have your lives!"

Shin steeled his gaze on the man. His eyes suddenly widened though when Hidan disappeared. "Peek-a-boo!" Jashin's acolyte exclaimed as he appeared right in front of Shin, scythe already moving in a heavy swipe for the village leader's neck. Shin brought his gauntlets up to hold it back, but the blades still managed to leave a shallow cut on the back of his neck before he was able to push the weapon away.

The entire Kazan squad moved at that, suddenly surrounding Hidan. Smirking, the silver-haired cultist pulled the scythe up to his mouth and licked the blood of Shin. Before anyone could react, he then lunged his own weapon into his abdomen, causing blood to flow freely from his body and onto the floor.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" One of the ANBU asked incredulously as Hidan moved his foot in the blood until he stood in a symbol matching the emblem on his amulet. "I don't know what you think you're doing, but it won't happen!" The same one shouted as he performed several handseals. **"Fuuton: Kaze no Yaiba!" **With three quick slashes of his palm, three gashes appeared on Hidan's torso just as his skin changed to a charcoal hue, a white tattoo resembling a skull appearing on his face and another on his hands resembling what his bones would look like. All other parts of his body were hidden.

"Gah!" Everyone looked at Shin, who was suddenly on the ground. He vomited a stream of blood onto the path as more blood dripped from his torso as if he had been cut. "What… what did you do?" Shin demanded to know.

"That would be telling!" He pointed out before suddenly stabbing himself with the scythe in his chest. Shin stood no chance as he suddenly collapsed to the floor, twitching before he went completely still. One of the ANBU checked the leader for any life signs before glaring at the overzealous maniac.

"Shin-sama is dead… Execute this man!" The seven remaining ANBU rushed the scythe-wielder in righteous fury, pulling out weapons that ranged from kunai to tanto and even a chokuto. Hidan smirked at this new development and stepped out of the circle, causing his skin to return to its normal shade.

The first two blades stabbed into his abdomen, eliciting a moan of pleasure from the man before he lodged his scythe into one of the perpetrator's heads while the other one he gripped by the throat and allowed his sharpened nails to dig into the flesh, ripping out her esophagus and flinging it behind him. Pulling out the two tanto stored inside him, he giggled as if it tickled and lunged them into the hearts of their owners before taking his scythe back.

Seeing the display of beserker combat, the others halted their rush, keeping distance as they tried to find an opening. Hidan was not patient enough to humor them. "Fight, you fucking cowards!" He shouted and threw his weapon, watching it spin end over end until it pinned another of them to a tree with the middle blade through the ANBU's mask with the other two through either eye.

In a flash of speed, Hidan grabbed the handle and yanked the scythe out through the side of the woman's head, spraying blood and brain matter all over the floor where she was thrown. The remaining four now held their weapons visibly shaking in fear at this monster. "Y-you're a demon!" One of them shouted just before his breath hitched and his head fell to the floor.

Hidan grinned wide and pushed the man's body to the ground as he licked his scythe's blade. "Hm… salty. Sweat mixed with blood is always the best, I can taste the fear you heretics have the more of you I kill." He glanced to his left, where the last three stood, too petrified to even move. There was no Killing Intent, so suffocating chakra being exuded, they were simply too afraid of this monster.

Hidan grinned even wider. "I bet you have never seen the power of an S-ranked shinobi, have you?" He received no answer, only the unnatural silence that the trio offered. He glared at them and stepped forward, using his bloody scythe to impale one of them through the side of his head. "When I ask a question you better fucking answer it, you damn maggots!" He ripped his scythe out the front of the man's head, his eyeball popping out with it and rolling on the ground until he crushed it beneath his sandal, a sickening and slippery sound the result as it was destroyed.

"N-no!" One of them answered him. "N-n-never!" Hidan let that sick grin of his reform as he stepped forward and patted the head of the one who answered.

"Good… good…" His scythe suddenly went right through the abdomen of the one who remained silent. Instead of allowing the woman to cough up blood, he held his hand against the mask, not allowing it to be released. She began to try and cough more as the man forced her to the ground, his foot pressed down on her mask as she convulsed. The pressure of his foot began to crack the mask until it broke. When he removed it, the face that was shown revealed a nose that had been forced into the woman's head, blood around her busted lips and a large bruise in the shape of Hidan's sandal. "Oh… and one more thing."

He turned to look at the last person remaining as he forcefully pulled the scythe out of the woman's ribcage. Without any sort of hesitation, he lunged the butt of the weapon right through the man's chest in an impressive show of strength. "It's no, sir. Show some respect for your goddamn elders, you ungrateful son of a bitch." There was no response as the man fell to his knees before being kicked in the face by Hidan's foot, dislodging the handle of the weapon from its target.

"Impressive work. I think I'll add you to the assortment." Hidan turned around, trying to locate where the voice came from. "Over here." Looking to his right, where the voice came from, Hidan glared but saw nothing. "Come now, why don't you at least try?" This time, the voice came from _everywhere _around the dark acolyte.

"Who the fuck are you?! Come out and fight me, you piece of shit!" Hidan yelled out, gripping his scythe in anticipation. Bloodlust practically radiated off of him in waves for another victim. A volley of needles rained upon him from multiple directions without warning. Hidan was quick, but in the end he ended up with dozens of them in his skin. "FUCK YOU!" He screamed at the burning sensation from the poison coating the needles. Even if his immortality kept him living, it didn't change the fact that the pain was still terrible.

"Interesting, the fact that you can even stand, let alone talk means that your apparent immortality does not just extend your life." The voice noted. "It may be that your vitality is placed in stasis or perhaps it is a healing factor so quick that wounds heal faster than anything can hurt. Then again, you are still bleeding, so it must be something else…"

"It is the power of Jashin-sama!" Hidan preached. "He has chosen me as his acolyte on this world of heretics to pass judgement on those who have forsaken him! He gave me this chance to prove myself to him by destroying Kazangakure, one of the villages that destroyed his worshipers twelve years ago! After I kill them, my immortality will be absolute and I can sacrifice every heretic in the world in his name! For all of time!"

It was silent a moment, giving Hidan time to look around the area for any sign of the culprit. When he couldn't hear anything, he stepped forward only to trip flat on his face. Glaring angrily, he looked at his foot to see that it was tangled in… ninja wire. "What is this? Are you fucking with me now, you shit-eating son of a pig whore!?" He yelled out as he slammed his scythe on the wire, cutting it cleanly.

As he did so, a large boulder suddenly came from the trees and slammed into his head. Finding himself on the ground once more – this time with a large gash on the back of his head that was bleeding profusely – Hidan growled in frustration. Getting up with scythe in hand, he screamed in rage. "I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU! I SWEAR TO JASHIN-SAMA THAT I WILL RIP YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF AND MOUNT IT ON A POLE FOR EVERYONE IN THE ELEMENTAL NATIONS TO LOOK AT, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!"

"My, my… someone has a temper." The voice goaded. "I'm surprised you're having so much trouble with a little boy of only seven. Can't you do anything properly?" The voice wondered. Hidan grit his teeth in anger at the statement. They were fucking with him! No seven year old could possibly overcome him! He had Jashin-sama on his side!

He tossed his scythe in anger at a nearby tree, embedding the blade halfway into its trunk. "That wasn't so smart. Now you have no weapons at all." Hidan ignored the voice, walking over to his scythe when a large, blue sealing array appeared midair and his prized weapon… disappeared! "Now what will you do, acolyte?"

"Show yourself and you'll see exactly what the fuck I'll do!" He shouted angrily. He looked around, wondering if anyone would actually show up when someone stepped from the trees brandishing a kunai. It was a fucking kid! He looked barely old enough to join the Academy! "Are you shitting me? A kid? You're dead, brat!" Hidan rushed forward at the young redhead, hand formed into a claw and swiped at him.

To his surprise, he simply passed right through the boy and crashed into the tree he stood in front of. "What the fuck was that?!" He demanded to know as he separated himself from the tree. "I know I hit you, you fucker!" He shouted as the boy phased out of existence. "You think you're better than me just cause you have a little ninja trick?! I'll show you that I don't need any fancy illusions to kill you!"

As he finished his rant, four fuuma shuriken shot at him from the other side of the path, one of them actually hitting him as it's curved blade impaled his leg as he tried to jump over it. He fell to the ground on his face as the momentum spun his body, forcing the shuriken's arm to fully inject itself through his leg as he hit the ground.

A scream of pain reached out across the forest. It was not the good pain Hidan relished. He loved pain he inflicted on himself that others were forced to feel but this… this was humiliating! And the voice wasn't even there anymore. It was like he wasn't good enough to hear the taunting!

Ripping the shuriken out of his leg and standing, the silver-haired acolyte threw it back where it came hard enough to sever a tree from its trunk. It lodged itself in the tree directly behind that, vibrating from the force suddenly being stopped. So consumed in rage, Hidan missed out on the blue sealwork appearing right behind him as hundreds of senbon shot out, impaling his back, neck, legs, arms and head in needles that forced him to cry out in pain.

By the time he turned around, the seal was gone and any trace of the one who summoned it into existence was as well. Hidan's breath was labored as he tried to cope with what was happening, with losing his weapon, his cool and his focus. He fell to his knees as the exhaustion hit him. His immortality apparently didn't include immunity to fatigue just as it didn't provide immunity to pain.

As he lost his footing, he felt a deep burning sensation around his throat and grabbed for the source, ripping it away. He looked at the ground in front of him and saw it was his unholy amulet that was now on the floor. "J-jashin-sama…" He breathed out. As soon as the amulet hit the ground, he fell to his hands, screaming loudly. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Suddenly, the pain of all of his self-inflicted injuries hit him, the poison from the senbon shredded his perception and hole in his leg from the shuriken blurred his vision. Blood poured from his wounds, turning his black robe a deep, dark red. It began to pool around his body quickly. His vision was barely better than tunnel vision, but he could see his amulet slowly raising in the air before the redhead from before appeared with the word, **"Kai"**.

Naruto looked down at the man who had needlessly slaughtered the eight ninja from Kazan as he collapsed, breath stopping as his body gave out from the combined wounds. Sasori then jumped down from the treetops next to him with a proud smile on his lips. "You did a very fine job Naruto. You watched him fight, found his weakness and exploited it without ever revealing where you were. That was a great impersonation of my voice by the way, genjutsu?"

Naruto smiled a little and shook his head. "I used a genjutsu to make my voice sound like it came from everywhere, but I've been practicing impersonating you and different strangers I've met in my own time." _Thank you for helping me with that, Shiyore. _He thought to himself as a girlish giggling resounded in his head.

"Well, it looks like you will do very well. Your skills in genjutsu are doing well against opponents with no shinobi training so I think we'll move on to elemental training within the next three days." Naruto tilted his head at that statement. "Something wrong, Naruto?"

"You said no shinobi training?"

"This man, Hidan, is no shinobi. He is a religious zealot that gained power from some sort of demon but any shinobi worth their salt would have easily dispelled the genjutsu you cast. You have only a week's experience casting them, so it was obvious that since he fell for that Bunshin of yours and didn't try to use a Kawarimi when those fuuma shuriken were headed for him that he was no shinobi. He's just a psychopath that got lucky."

Naruto looked down at the silver-haired man and shivered at the thought. If he was just a civilian who got lucky, what would a real shinobi be like in battle? He really needed to train hard if he had to go up against people worse than that monster. It was true that he wasn't hurt at all, but it was Hidan's fault for being so emotional. He lost his cool very quickly after his traps were sprung.

"What's that, Naruto?" Sasori wondered as he saw the amulet in his hands. Naruto looked down and held it up, examining it. The thing seemed to be made out of some sort of black material that looked like metal but felt like glass. It also was the source of the dark chakra Naruto had felt, now that he trained his sensory skills on it. "It looks like the amulet the acolyte was wearing. Well, you already have his scythe, so you may as well take that too."

Naruto hesitated, but at the look Sasori was giving him, he smiled and nodded, placing the amulet around his neck and tucking it underneath his shirt. "What will we do with the bodies, sensei?" Naruto asked curiously. Sasori looked as if he was going to reach for something in his cloak before smiling.

"Seal them in your Void Storage. They will be useful to teach you a future lesson. Trust me, I have a plan for them in the very near future. After you finish, we need to make haste. The Daimyou's palace is in need of two investigators I hear and we happen to be the two for the job." Naruto had no idea what his sensei meant, but he would do as he was told. Sasori always had a reason for things, sometimes he just couldn't see it.


	6. Chapter VI

**Red Sands**

**Chapter VI**

**[Naruto's Mindscape]**

"Hm... interesting..." The statement came from a figure who spoke with a noble's grace, tinged with a little madness given the wide smile on his black lips. The figure stood tall, easily measuring over seven feet and had skin white as paper. His eyes were red as blood with sclera black as night and no pupils, though there was a golden, inverted triangle inside of his irides.

As the figure's smile grew, it could be seen that his teeth were filed to a point, similar to what the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist did to themselves, each one was stained red permanently. As the figure turned his head to look at his surroundings, his shoulder-length ponytail of silver hair swayed ever so slightly. Nodding to himself, the figure began walking, his ankle-length black robes swishing with each step.

"This boy will do nicely once I convert him." The figure chuckled to himself. "I need to find the center of his mindscape first though, then I can start whispering to him." The figure smirked widely before frowning. "That imbecile Hidan… I thought he had such potential. He was overzealous without much work on my part. If he was defeated even with my gift by this youth, then I can only imagine how great of an acolyte he'll make!" The chuckle turned into mad laughter very soon before abruptly stopping as the figure saw someone else in the hallway he walked, looking at him sternly. She looked to be a young kitsune, yet she had nine tails… curious.

"The moment Naruto-nii put on that amulet, we could feel you. Tou-san even woke for a brief moment, disgusted with he felt from you. Kaa-chan is fuming. We know who… what you are, Jashin." The girl gave him a glare with such intensity that Jashin couldn't help but lick his lips. He would have responded if not for the girl thrusting her palm out and suddenly releasing several chains from her palm that were a dark purple. Jashin couldn't react quick enough and found himself bound as they tightly wrapped around his frame. He gasped for air as they squeezed tighter before howling in pain as several blades formed on each link and dug deep into his ivory flesh.

"Those blade are hooked. If you try to struggle, they will only serve to rip out chunks of your flesh. Seeing as how the remainder of your power is held within that amulet Naruto-nii wears, you know that if you die in here it will be a true death, you parasite." Shiyore spoke to the demon who caroused as a god, a being she despised not for existing, but for the fact he even considered trying to manipulate her older brother into being an acolyte.

"W-who are you? How do you know any of that?" Shiyore looked at the being before turning around and began walking, taking satisfaction in the fact that as she began to drag Jashin he inhaled sharply in pain.

"You see the tails, do I really need to explain myself to something as significant as you?" She didn't look at Jashin as she answered, waiting for him to come to an assumption.

"The Kyuubi…"

"So even a bottom-feeder that relies on psychopathic humans understands that." She replied, content to let him believe. "I'm sure you understand how I know then. I've lived for a millennia, long enough to know everything about so-called demons like yourself. The fact that you would dare try to take over the body I inhabit shows the disrespect you hold for me." She felt the absolute _terror _that rolled off of him in waves and it brought a smile to her lips.

"I had no idea you inhabited this boy already, Kyuubi-sama!" Jashin exclaimed. "Had I known, I would have stayed within my amulet and never entered!" His tone practically screamed begging for mercy. He knew he was in serious trouble now and it showed in the way his body shook.

"I cannot let you return just yet, you worm." Shiyore spoke calmly as she found the chamber she searched for. Gripping the chains in one hand, she swung them and released the pitiful demon into the room where he became tangled in the spiked chains within. "First you need to be taught a lesson by my kaa-chan on respect and boundaries.

"Thank you, Shiyore-chan." Kushina spoke as she stood, her purple eyes meeting the fearful eyes of the so-called demon. At her will, the chains wrapped him from the neck down, digging into his flesh. As the redhead stepped into the light, Jashin saw the chains were connected to her back. "I know you don't know who I am, demon, but I know a _lot _about you thanks to my daughter over there." She said gesturing to Shiyore, who was grinning. "My other baby, my Naruto-chan, happens to be the boy you wanted to possess. I hope you can appreciate the severity of the situation right now, Jashin-kun." A smirk touched her lips as she rose his hand and he flinched. "Good, that fear is well founded." She turned to the little girl. "Shiyore-chan, keep Naruto out of here for the next week. I have a lot of work to do and I don't want him to see his kaa-chan torturing this… thing."

"Of course, kaa-chan!" Shiyore stated cheerily, practically chirping as she skipped out of the room. Even as she headed down the hallway, she heard his first screams. It was like music to her ears.

**[Oni Daimyou's Palace]**

_88, 89, 90, 91… _Sana thought to herself with each stroke of her brush through waist-length, golden locks that were her hair. Pale blue eyes looked into the mirror as she sat, performing the last portion of her morning routine. When she reached one-hundred, she placed the brush down with delicate fingers and smiled to herself in the mirror, seeing her perfectly white teeth. Her ivory face was without blemish or marking thanks to subtle applications of make-up and when she finally stood, it was with all the grace of a queen.

She was not yet the Daimyou however, no… not quite. She couldn't claim the Demon Crown until the perpetrator of her father's assassination was found and executed. A frown marred her soft features at that thought before it changed back to a small, omniscient smile. She could wait a few more weeks, or months even if it was necessary. She was still running the country even if she didn't sit at the Makai Throne. The country couldn't go on without a leader, so she held the powers, if not the title.

Her thoughts were broken as a knock came at the door to her room. "Sana-hime, you have visitors awaiting you in the Courtyard. They are two redheads that claim to be emissaries of the Uzumaki Clan and go by the names Okoze and Arashi." Sana widened her eyes as fear flashed across them.

"Why now of all times…" She whispered to herself. "Why did he have to be in Oni no Kuni _now _of all times? I wanted to be finished with this ordeal before he returned…" Straightening herself and breathing deeply, the princess opened the door and looked at the guard who came. "Please lead me to them." She spoke with serenity, masterfully hiding her emotions. _Perhaps he will help me though… I hope I am valuable enough to him._

**[Palace Courtyard]**

The very Uzumaki emissaries in her courtyard happened to be Sasori and Naruto. To better fit the image of diplomats from a prestigious – if dead – clan, they wore very formal yukata made from fine silk. Sasori's was black with a red obi a large, crimson Uzumaki crest on the back of his attire. Naruto's was instead blue but otherwise identical to what his sensei wore. Naruto also wore his amulet in the open with a seal-enhanced genjutsu to make it appear as if it was an Uzumaki whirpool made out of ruby, black sapphire serving as the outline of the curves.

As the door to the castle opened, the two redheads looked towards it. Sana walked out, a guard accompanying her. "Leave us, Minashi." She ordered the man who left with a low bow to his princess. He closed the door and the three were left in private silence. The Demon Princess approached the duo gracefully, her hands behind her back, left wrist clasped in her right hand.

"Thank you for having us, Sana-hime." Sasori spoke politely as sensei and apprentice bowed their heads in unison, receiving a slight tilt from the woman in return. "Your garden is very lovely." He said as he glanced around at the courtyard and the various flora from every corner of the Elemental Nations that grew. "Flowers are wonderful, don't you think? They are pretty and hold the attention of anyone that look at them, making the viewers ignore other things in the background. But, one little slip and… they can't survive. Strange isn't it? When a flower has gone so long depending on the careful care their master gives them, when it is taken away… they lose everything."

Sana swallowed deeply at the words he spoke. She knew the underlying meaning and bowed deeply to the man. "My deepest apologies, Sasori-sama…" she whispered. "I beg for your forgiveness." She went lower, and fell to her knees, face close to the floor. "I have overstepped my boundaries but I thought the aftermath would be taken care of by the time you returned. I only wished to show you that I could ascend of my own accord; I wanted to make you proud."

Sasori didn't react, disappoint the only emotion on his face. Disappointment in his pawn and – even more so – disappointment in himself. Finally, he brushed himself off at a look from Naruto and spoke. "Get up. It looks like I have to fix this mess you've gotten yourself into. If it weren't for the fact that this country would be sent into chaos and likely be invaded if I did so, I would kill you for doing anything without my order. Explain yourself and do it quickly. My apprentice no doubt appreciates the time to practice genjutsu but I'm sure he will tire of it as much as I have tired of you at this moment."

Sana quickly rose and held her hands in front of her stomach, nervously nodding her head. "Of course, Sasori-sama. My father had become mad, that's the only reason I did it. I don't know why, but he began to strengthen the Royal Guard and the non-shinobi military. He planned to begin invading other countries on our continent. As you know, unlike the mainland Elemental Nations, the island continent we are on has had only two hidden villages ever. The Hidden Swamp village from Swamp Country was wiped out seventy years ago, but ours survived.

"Since we have the only ninja village on the continent, he reasoned to others that we could easily pull every country on the continent into Demon Country. He thought we could take on fourteen countries just because we have official shinobi… they surely would have hired someone like Akatsuki and then we would have been destroyed. I had no choice, Sasori-sama. I have no siblings, so his death assured that I would take over. I had to stop him before he destroyed us."

Sasori sighed in exasperation. "That man was not prone to fancy, so there is something else at work here." He replied. "I will look into what exactly made the Daimyou mad, but for now I need a Daimyou and a village leader in this country. Kazan will take care of supplying a new village leader within the next few days. As for you, I will get you an assassin to pin the blame on. However, you are on probation. One more slip-up like this…" Sana suddenly gasped as she felt… _something _grip her throat. Naruto could feel the chakra and recognized it as his sensei's chakra strands choking her. "And you will be replaced by someone more able to take orders. Am I understood?" Sana quickly nodded her head as her face took on a slight blue tinge before he released her.

The princess fell to her hands and knees, gasping for air before looking up at the puppet master. His glare at her scared her and made her heart race all at the same time. "Sensei, we should be going." Naruto pointed out. "I can feel someone trying to locate my genjutsu, probably one of the ninja hired by the Royal family." Sasori nodded in agreement. "It was nice meeting you, Sana-hime." He told her with a smile before the two turned around and left.

Before they left, Sana was already up on her feet, standing straight and looking composed despite what had just happened. All in all, the meeting went better than she hoped. A smile touched her lips as she realized what the end result was. Her master was going to help her ascend to the throne much faster than she could have done on her own. "Thank you, Sasori-sama…" She whispered so low she couldn't even hear her own voice.

**[Outside Makai]**

The duo left Makai, the Oni no Kuni Capital city, and began walking down one of the roads. Sasori didn't much care where they went for now and appearing to go one way when they intended to go another was as much a part of puppetry as chakra strands and puppets themselves. Gone were the formal yukata of their meeting. Sasori was back in his black, hoodless robe. Naruto had done a little shopping in Makai and now wore a short-sleeve, black shirt and pants, his Jashinist amulet around his neck, black gloves with steel bracers on his hands, sealwork obvious on the bracers, a pair of goggles on his forehead to keep his hair from his face – and hopefully to keep water out of his eyes if he managed to get her elemental affinities – and an ankle-length trench coat that was inlaid with plenty of seals he had drawn in their hotel room the night before.

"What are we going to do, sensei?" Naruto asked, curious about the exchange with the princess his cousin had just had. "You said you would get an assassin for her to blame, right? Why frame someone for her sake?" Sasori was silent a moment as they walked before speaking.

"Sometimes a puppet master has to fix the mistakes that their puppets make. More often than not, it is the puppeteer's fault for creating a faulty puppet and so he has to continue with the puppet until the battle is over and fix it afterwards. I found that girl deep within depression, wondering what her purpose in life is. It could only have been two or three years ago, though I assure you she would know the exact date and time of our meeting.

"I knew just what to do to gain her loyalty and having a princess in my network of spies was very tempting. I have no regrets for claiming her affections. It is no different to what the kunoichi have to do on seduction missions and she has been very useful to me. The problem is that since her loyalty is ingrained into her heart and not her wallet, she does things I don't want her to in an effort to gain my approval.

"This is not the first thing she's done, but it is the first one that has had negative consequences. It is also the first that has had consequences this far-reaching. Had she been one of my normal agents, I would have killed her. If she had been in a different position, I would have killed her. As it stands, Shin is already dead. With the death of Kazangakure's Village Leader, there will already be a power vacuum. If she dies too and leaves the Daimyou throne up for grabs for the next in line after her, the political climate will be in disarray."

"If there's no Daimyou to run the country and no village leader to run the shinobi population, others will see opportunity, right?" Naruto asked. "If both positions are left empty for too long, word will get out and… another country will invade." He frowned in thought. "Kirigakure is the closest hidden village, so wouldn't they be the one to do it?" Sasori shook his head.

"The Mizukage is having enough trouble as it is. There's a civil war in Kirigakure between the Rebels – mostly made up of bloodliners, the Seven Swordsmen and some sympathetics – and the Loyalists – all the shinobi without bloodlines that share Yagura's hatred of them. Yagura is another of the jinchuuriki, he holds the three tails. Kirigakure's other jinchuuriki, Utakata, has yet to pick a side yet and neither side will attack him for fear of driving him to the other side and tipping the scales. Any bloodliner found by Yagura, regardless of age, ends up being killed on sight by mobs of overzealous villagers. I have even received word that sometimes the victim is mutilated even after death.

Naruto frowned at that thought. Being hated for something you couldn't control… he had heard the stories from Sasori. Most jinchuuriki were seen as demons by the public, hated, abused – sometimes physically but more often it was verbal or discrimination – and even had assassination attempts on them from both foreign and domestic sources. Sasori had concluded that the only reason he had been shielded from that was because no one in Konoha had known of his tenant. Kaa-chan had said something similar.

He recalled one of her stories. It was inevitable that people would come to learn of what she held when she battled. It spread among the ninja and people she thought were friends started looking at her in fear, as if the being she held back would escape if they said something wrong. Civilians outright were paralyzed when she passed by on the street. It grew worse after the war ended and she wasn't needed on the battlefield as much.

The apartment she stayed in was vandalized constantly. Rocks were thrown through her windows at night. If she left for a mission, she came back to graffiti on her walls and door and her entire dwelling in shambles. She had to place trap seals in her apartment, on the outside of her apartment and the anger problems from her childhood she tried so hard to keep down came back up. The only relief she received was when she finally moved in with his father. The love everyone had for Minato Namikaze outweighed the fear and hatred for the 'demon'.

Shaking out of those thoughts – and the anger he felt at the ignorance of the humans – Naruto looked at his sensei. "Do you have a target in mind, sensei?" He wondered.

"I do indeed." Sasori replied. "There is a Kazan nukenin I was planning on adding to my collection but he will do for this instead. He goes by Yumi Bikou and performs many assassination missions for the right price. We only need to capture him and then convince him that he performed it. I can have something to use as evidence against him and the Royal Guard will have little trouble placing the charge on him before executing Bikou. Then I'll take his corpse after they do and everything works out for both parties concerned."

**[Somewhere in Oni no Kuni] **

"What is this, Sasori-sensei?" Naruto felt the need to ask as the older redhead handed him a small piece of paper. The puppet master smiled to the younger boy mysteriously before he answered.

"That is referred to as chakra paper. When one channels their pure chakra into it, the paper will react in different ways depending on the concentration of elemental natures in said chakra. If the greatest concentration is Fire, it will burn to ashes. If the greatest concentration is Wind, it will be cut into pieces. Should it be Lightning, the paper will crinkle. Earth would cause it to crumple up. Water soaks the paper heavily. If there is two or more chakra natures that are equally concentrated in your chakra when you channel it, the paper will have multiple reactions simultaneously. As an example, my fellow apprentice under my grandmother in the art of puppetry was born with both the elements of Earth and Lightning so the paper crinkled and then rolled itself into a crumpled ball."

Naruto nodded his head at the explanation, understanding it. **"Kaa-chan had her paper first shredded into little pieces and then the pieces soaked so much they actually became water!" **Shiyore commented to him as she appeared next to him. **"Your tou-san, on the other hand, had his cut in half and then one piece wrinkle up like a prune while the other became a pile of ashes."**

Naruto concentrated his chakra into the paper and watched as the paper cut itself into quarters. One of the resulting pieces became drenched in water. The second became a very compact ball of paper. The third changed color to a stark white while the fourth changed color to a pitch black. He, of course, understood the first three to be Wind, Water and Earth, but the last two didn't make much sense to him. "So your affinities to Yin and Yang seem to be just as strong as your Wind, Water and Earth. I had a feeling Yang would be, given your ancestry, but Yin as well… I would have to assume it either has to do with whoever your father is or the Kyuubi, or perhaps both."

"Sensei, what do you mean by Yin and Yang? Are they affinities too?" Naruto wondered curiously. He had never heard of the terms from Sasori, kaa-chan or Shiyore so he was genuinely interested in just what they could possibly be.

"To an extent, yes, they are." Sasori replied. "Yin and Yang are actually the terms given to the energies that make up pure chakra. Yin is the spiritual energy while Yang is the physical energy. Yin chakra is used for things such as genjutsu and certain non-corporeal ninjutsu – such as the shadow ninjutsu of the Nara clan or chakra strands – and the more practice with Yin chakra one has, the easier their chakra is to control. Yang chakra on the other hand is used primarily for physical techniques such as medical ninjutsu or certain taijutsu styles that revolve around brute force and the more one practices with Yang chakra the higher their chakra reserves tend to be.

"The Uzumaki Clan has always been gifted with enormous chakra reserves and a passive healing factor due to our high concentration of Yang chakra. Our healing factor acts as a constant force using our Yang chakra and that is why the reserves of an Uzumaki consistently rise as they grow older. Chakra control is definitely an uphill battle for anyone in our clan."

"How do I train my Yin chakra, Sasori-sensei? I want to be able to keep my chakra control high so I can use puppets just like you." Naruto asked his cousin, determination deep in his violet eyes. Sasori saw the look that the boy was giving him and couldn't help but smile infinitesimally.

"There are several ways but the easiest one for you to do is to continually learn and use more genjutsu and keep using your sealing arrays. The same way you use the Void Storage can be used for other seals and is primarily Yin chakra. I have many more genjutsu to teach you in my arsenal even if I'm no genjutsu master." The puppet master paused a moment before pulling a trio of scrolls from his robe and handing them to Naruto. "However, that is not the purpose of today.

"In these scrolls are instructions on how to learn the Fuuton: Reppusho, the Suiton: Mizurappa and the Doton: Dorodan. Learning a low-level ninjutsu is to get you accustomed to the feeling of these elements and we will go through nature manipulation training after you have mastered these three. However, do not neglect in your Fuinjutsu studies or your genjutsu training while you learn these. For puppeteers keeping all of your skills fresh is more important than learning a new ability."

"Hai, sensei! I understand." Naruto responded with a bow of his head as two of the scrolls disappeared into his Void Storage. "I will do my best to make you proud." His nose was already in the scroll, reading it as they walked at a sedate pace to whatever destination Sasori had in mind.

**[Naruto's Mindscape]**

"Nii-chan!" Naruto heard the little girl as he entered his mindscape and turned to see Shiyore just before he found himself wrapped up in her nine tails. "You were really great today in training! Kaa-chan was so proud of your progress and so am I!" Naruto grinned as the excited girl let go of him.

"Thanks, Shiyore-chan." He replied to her. "Come on, let's go see kaa-chan. I need some help in Fuinjutsu and I haven't seen her in two nights anyways." Naruto felt his momentum suddenly stop and looked at his waist to spy a violet chain, one he knew belonged to his half-sister.

"Kaa-chan isn't feeling well right now, nii-chan. She really needs her rest but I'm sure she'll love to see you when she can. Why don't I help you instead?" When he turned to regard the girl, she was in her adult form. Naruto sighed but nodded. Whenever kaa-chan was tired, she needed her rest. She told him that at some point she would likely gain her old strength back, but for now she had to rest when needed.

"Thanks, Shiyore-sensei." Naruto replied with a smile. "I really appreciate it." Shiyore smiled and led him in the opposite direction of Kushina's room towards a different part of his mindscape he hadn't seen before. The particular room she brought him to looked to be similar to the forest that Naruto had seen when he first came to his mindscape and saw the memory between Kurama and Izuna. As if to recreate that scene, Shiyore sat down on a tree stump, looking at him.

"So, you need help with Fuinjutsu…" She mumbled to herself before a book appeared in her hand. Naruto recognized it as the tome of memories from both Kurama and Kushina. "Kaa-san was most skilled in storage, barrier and battle seals so let's see what I can teach you." As she flipped through pages of the book, the kitsunemimi hummed in thought before smiling. "Well, I think this will work very well in conjunction with your Void Storage and your elemental training. There's a sealing array that you can use to store chakra of any type and then release the stored chakra at a later time, **Kakoi Fuin: Eiki Kizai**."

"Storage Seal: Energy Matrix…" Naruto mumbled to himself. "So I make the seal and put chakra into it and then the chakra is released later? Is it like an explosive seal then?" Shiyore nodded her head. "Is there a limit on how much chakra I can put into it?"

Shiyore looked at the book again before shaking her head. "Kaa-san wondered the same thing and experimented with it. The amount of chakra you can place in the seal is proportional to the size of the seal. You can also make specialized versions of the seal to allow only one type of chakra to be stored inside but a much larger quantity when compared to the basic seal of a similar size. With your ability to materialize seals with only your chakra, you could make this your first offensive technique."

Naruto nodded, knowing that his weakness was in the fact that he had very little offensive capability if striking from the shadows was made impossible. The ninjutsu he was learning definitely would help, though not by much given the low rank of the three Sasori had given him to start with. He would just have to be creative in a fight though. It was quite literally his only option.

"Alright then! Let's get started, shall we?" Shiyore now stood and was in her teenage form. "We only have a few hours before you have to wake up in the morning, so let's get as much as we can tonight!" Naruto couldn't help but smile at her enthusiasm and nodded agreement. She was definitely a different sort of teacher from Sasori but that wasn't really a bad thing, in Naruto's opinion.

"Right, I'm ready to start, Shiyore-sensei."

**[Outside world, 2 days later]**

"Sasori-sensei, I can feel multiple signatures nearby, fourteen in total in a cluster. Twelve of them feel like civilians and there are two larger signatures, though one is much smaller than the other. The larger one is probably high Chuunin or low Jounin while the smaller one feels somewhere between low Genin and mid Genin." Naruto told his master.

Sasori was silent a moment as he thought it over and nodded to himself. "A bandit camp, if I had to guess. There is a good chance that our target is within so we shall follow, observe and take them down tonight. Even if it is not Bikou, it will be good training for you."

"Hai, Sasori-sensei!" Naruto replied as the two disappeared in twin swirls of splinters.

**[Later that night]**

"_Sasori trusts you quite a bit, onii-chan." _Naruto didn't look to his right, but he knew that Shiyore had formed next to him and, if her voice was any indication, she was in her child form. _"Your training has come along rather nicely, though, so I think he's definitely right in doing so." _The deepening of her voice indicated her form had changed in between sentences so she was now an adult.

_Thank you, Shiyore-sensei. _He replied using his thoughts, knowing that she would hear him. He needed to focus though, one slip up and it could be the difference between success and failure. He would not disappoint Sasori-sensei, kaa-chan or Shiyore-nee, he could not.

Holding a ram seal, he channeled a little of his chakra to his feet. **"Genpo: Oshi no Jutsu." **Naruto whispered the technique's name, silencing the sound from his feet. **"Magen: Meisaigakure no Jutsu." **With the second genjutsu activated, his form shimmered before disappearing as if he wasn't there. He then pulled out a kunai from a seal on his coat, holding it in a backhand grip as he crept forward from the shadows, silent as death.

His eyes stayed forward on the figure that stood watch at the campfire. The bandit was unsuspecting of anything, drinking what was probably sake right from the bottle in one hand while his other had a stick, poking the fire. Naruto could sense that the other bandits were asleep and that the two ninja were a ways off from these twelve. They were probably given special treatment as there was no doubt in Naruto's mind that Bikou was leader and his apprentice was second-in-command.

Naruto didn't smile, even if the fact did make him content. It would make his job simpler, though certainly not easier. Releasing two senbon from his coat, he let them fly forward until they pierced the man's neck just as he threw his head back to down another gulp of his drink. The man froze in place before falling off the log he sat on, the bottle rolling out of his hand as he gasped for air.

Naruto was at the man's side by the time his back hit the floor and shoved his kunai into the bandit's chest, right where his heart would be. Immediately, the man went still. Naruto formed his Void Storage and sealed up the body and the bottle of sake, leaving no evidence as he also placed a weak genjutsu over the blood. To further give the illusion, he formed a Bunshin that he placed a genjutsu over it that took the appearance of the first bandit.

Making his way past the campfire, Naruto came across a sort of shack made of wood with some small holes in the walls, but otherwise was stable enough. Peering through a hole, he confirmed four conscious targets and two sleeping just as his sensory abilities told him of. The two sleeping ones were in sleeping bags on the floor while the four others were at a table drinking and playing some sort of game with cards, a pile of ryo in the middle.

Sneaking around the edge of the building, he found the door. It was shut, which led to a large problem. If he wanted to keep his stealthy approach, then it would require patience for these six; it was either that or creativity. Smiling at that thought, Naruto used his chakra sensing to lock on to the energy of one of the sleeping bandits and snuck around so that only the wall separated him and the man's body. Placing his hand against the wall, he allowed a small amount of chakra to seep into the wall and pushed ever so slightly until he felt contact between his chakra and the miniscule pool the bandit held.

"**Genpo: Ippai Iriyou…" **He mumbled to himself as he manipulated the chakra in his system just as Shiyore had taught him to. Not even two seconds later he heard the man suddenly get up and could feel the curiosity from the four other bandits that were awake as the fifth walked towards the door. Naruto quickly made his way to the door as it opened.

"I gotta take a piss, what the fuck? Do I ask you where you go every time you leave, Yaju? If I wanted to be nagged at, I would've stayed with that bitch back in Tanzaku."

"Calm down Daji, just go in the trees or something." As the man named Daji left, Naruto snuck inside the shack, the door slamming behind him as Daji left. He quickly analyzed the situation from his new vantage, making a decision. He needed to work fast so that he was finished before Daji came back.

First, he placed his palm on the ground before him, creating a sound barrier within the shack and formed a weak genjutsu over it that made it appear at if there was nothing there. Next, he formed a second genjutsu over the sleeping bandit that would give him the same appearance that he was sleeping. Pulling out a kunai, he placed his hand over the sleeping man's mouth as the kunai penetrated his neck up to the ring.

Naruto shuddered as he felt the man's breath hitch and a mixture of saliva and blood suddenly cover his palm, but the men playing cards didn't move, so he hoped they hadn't noticed. He could feel Daji returning from the woods, noticeably agitated so he decided to end the other four quickly. Molding his chakra he sprouted four a large Void Storage seal above the quartet's table and had it suddenly release a variety of steel ninja tools that killed them before they could wonder what the array was. **"Uzumaki Fuinjutsu: Kuukioku: Kouame no Jutsu…" **The technique was whispered, but that did not lessen its effectiveness as the four were now bleeding out on the table, cards stained crimson as steel instruments either lay on the floor uselessly or remained within their heads and backs. **"Genpo: Nitari Eizou…"**

His genjutsu was up with several seconds to spare before Daji would be back, so Naruto readied a kunai from his coat, positioning himself with a good vantage point. The door opened and Daji walked in. As soon as the door closed, the sound of parting air filled the shack before the metal blade was deep within Daji's esophagus, preventing him from breathing.

After a few minutes, the bodies and the ninja tools were safely tucked within his Void Storage. He then left, a seal-based genjutsu making it seem like the six were still there, two sleeping and four playing cards. The last five bandits were on Sasori's side of the camp, so naturally they were already dead. There was little else for Naruto to do, so he allowed his invisibility genjutsu to drop.

"_Move, Naruto!" _The sudden shout from Shiyore was all Naruto needed to hear as he jumped backwards into the trees. It was just in time to avoid several shuriken that were now embedded in the floor where he had just been. Re-applying the Meisaigakure no Jutsu, Naruto disappeared from sight as he scanned the area for any movement. _"They're suppressing their chakra, Naruto, be careful." _She told him from within the mindscape.

Hearing her say that, Naruto frowned. It was the same trick that Sasori taught him how to do. It was something only puppeteers and assassins actively trained in, which meant that this was either Bikou or his apprentice. Based on the fact that he was still alive, Naruto assumed it was the apprentice.

Slowing his breath, Naruto kept his hearing strained, listened to any stray sounds as he slowly and silently moved within the tree line. There was nothing discernible to him, meaning that his opponent was likely using a similar tactic.

Making his way closer to the edge of the treeline, he scanned the shadows of the camp. There was nothing that he could see, but that simply meant his opponent was as good at stealth if not better than he was. _I'll have to handle this like I did with Hidan… _Naruto thought to himself as he unsealed a few supplies from his coat.

"_Not exactly what you did against him though, is it?" _Shiyore asked with humor evident in her voice.

_The situation is different, so I have to act accordingly. I'm not laying traps, but I am still trying to take control of the battlefield. _He replied as he tied some ninja wire to two different kunai, the wires themselves had multiple tags connected to them at different intervals. He then sealed them both within his Void Storage as he formed two of them in midair, above the camp at opposite forty-five degree angles. **"Uzumaki Fuinjutsu: Kuukioku: Kai…" **The whispered command shot the two kunai into the ground as he activated their tags.

The tags on one wire began to exude a white fog and the other had flashbangs that went off every five seconds. Ascending the trees, Naruto looked down into the mist and searched for any shadows that were distinctly human with each flash. It only took four of them to locate his opponent. He was hiding behind the shack.

Naruto walked down the tree and began to quietly, but quickly, make his way to where his opponent was. Pulling out his kunai, Naruto was ready to let it fly. Instead, he had to use it to deflect an incoming volley of shuriken. He was successful in all but two, which caused a shallow cut on his left cheek and became embedded in his left forearm.

Gritting his teeth and holding back tears, Naruto plucked it out of his arm and dropped it. That arm would be impossible to use until it healed, but he should have been more aware of his surroundings. "So, you were able to find me." The boy that stood before him was probably thirteen or fourteen and had black hair that extended past his shoulders in the back and just above his eyes in the front, green eyes and skin so dark that Naruto had a hard time distinguishing it from the shadows. He also wore a long-sleeve shirt, gloves and pants all black.

Naruto didn't respond, though the pain in his arm did force him to leave his camouflage jutsu as he lost focus. He held his kunai tightly, looking at his opponent for any sort of movement so he could react accordingly. "That's fine, you don't have to say anything…" Bikou's apprentice spoke, smiling confidently. "You'll be incapable of saying anything ever again very soon anyways."

Another salvo of projectiles – kunai this time – were sent his way, but Naruto was ready and dropped his kunai as he held up half a ram seal with his right hand. **"Uzumaki Fuinjutsu: Kuukioku!" **For the first time that night, he spoke the name of a technique in a tone above a whisper. The Void Storage he summoned sealed the kunai tightly within to the surprise of the boy. **"Kai!" **Naruto shouted and not only the kunai that had originally been sealed within, but also dozens of other ninja tools shot right for him. Had he been a second quicker, the boy might have been able to escape, but instead he fell to the floor as two shuriken were embedded in his right leg and a fuuma shuriken was within his abdomen.

The boy lay on his back, coughing up blood as Naruto approached. "What sort of poison was on those shuriken?" Naruto asked the boy. "I can feel it… and any poison strong enough that I can feel it is definitely powerful." His now incapacitated opponent glared up at Naruto. "It won't kill me, if that's what you're thinking. My sensei is a master of poisons so even if my healing factor does not take care of it, I'm sure he can help."

The apprentice coughed as his expression went from a glare to disappointment. "Hehe… well, there goes my solace in knowing I'd take you with me to the afterlife. Bikou-sensei would never forgive me if I gave out his secrets, so you won't find out from me." Naruto bent down and pulled out the fuuma shuriken from the teen's stomach, eliciting a loud scream of pain from him.

"That's really too bad. Oh well… I don't really have a reason to use anything poisoned yet anyways, I have no puppets so I'll just have to figure out poisons on my own." With a new Void Storage up, Naruto sealed it up. "Still, you were definitely the strongest opponent I've gone against so far, so I'd like to at least know your name."

"…" The boy said nothing for a few moments before sighing. "Seirou, my name is Seirou." He finally admitted.

"Naruto." He replied with a nod of respect to the boy. "I am glad to have met such a good opponent and I know that this fight will serve to make me stronger in the future." Seirou chuckled at that before it became full-blown laughter despite the large hole in his stomach.

"You're a weird kid, Naruto… I almost feel like we could have been friends… you better not get killed any time soon though. At least if I die to you and you become really strong… then I can still hold on to my pride."

Naruto smirked at that. "I do not plan on dying any time soon, Seirou, I can promise you that." Seirou closed his eyes at that admission, chuckling.

"That's good to hear. See you in the next life then, Naruto."

**[Center of the Camp]**

"Welcome back, Naruto. I see you had a successful mission." Sasori mentioned as he witnessed his apprentice appear in a swirl of splinters. "Though you do seem to have sustained some injuries."

"The bandits weren't able to notice me, but Seirou, the apprentice of Bikou, surprised me. It was my own mistake for not being more aware and I know that my healing will take care of it so I guess it's just a lesson I had to learn." He replied, disappointment clear in his voice. "I did seal up all the bandits and Seirou though, just as you told me to. All of my seals are also gone and any blood has been washed away with my **Suiton: Mizurappa**. Even if I haven't mastered it yet, I can still use it for things like washing the ground."

"Good, good." Sasori praised him. "Bikou is tied up and has been properly… educated on his role in assassinating the Daimyou, so our mission was very successful. Come, let us go back to Makai." Naruto nodded and followed his master as they headed away from the camp, Bikou in tow thanks to Sasori's chakra strands.


	7. Chapter VII

**l****Red Sands**

**Chapter ****VII**

**[Makai, Daimyo Palace]**

Naruto and Sasori walked into the Daimyo's Palace for the second time that week, dressed the same as they had been previously. Bikou trailed behind them in seal-based restraints, hidden under a genjutsu to keep from anyone in Makai from giving them unwanted attention. As they entered the palace, a guard was almost immediately before them. The man wore the uniform of the Hell Brigade, Makai's Royal Guard. The man's helmet was a deep red with a face-plate that looked like an oni mask, two horns coming from the forehead and two slits that acted as eye-holes. Below that, he wore black armor with red pauldrons, clawed gauntlets and a studded kanabo hanging from his waist.

"I will have to ask you to state your business here." The guard spoke calmly to Sasori. The older redhead smiled as he looked up to the man who stood a whole foot taller than the puppeteer with wide shoulders and a body that looked more fit for a blacksmith than for a guardsman. "I hope you understand that with the recent assassination of our Daimyo that we cannot afford to slack our security in the slightest."

Sasori nodded to the man and turned to Naruto. "If you would please show him what business we have here it would be most appreciated."

"Hai, sensei." Naruto replied and held a ram seal. The guard's hand shot to his kanabo, tensing. He obviously had experience with ninja to know what handseals were and to recognize one so readily. "**Kai.**" Naruto spoke as his illusion over Bikou disappeared. "Yami Bikou, known assassin, missing-nin of Kazangakure and self-confessed kingslayer."

The guard's breath hitched and Naruto could feel his small pool of chakra fluctuate at the news. "You understand our business here now, correct?" Sasori asked. "Sana-hime tasked us with locating the assassin of her father and we have brought him to the Hell Brigade. She will not make our employment known, giving the Guard a chance at glory. You may have him interrogated as well if your Captain so chooses." Sasori pushed Bikou to the guard, the missing-nin stumbling but regaining his balance as he cast his eyes to the floor, refusing to look at anyone.

"We have business elsewhere to attend to however." Sasori and Naruto turned with such grace befitting of nobles and were gone before the guard could fully comprehend the situation. Looking at Bikou, he grabbed the man and beginning making his way to the Captain's Quarters. He would want to hear of this development!

**[Mindscape]**

Whimpering, chains rattling and a loud thud were the succession of sounds that came from Kushina's room in the mindscape. With hard eyes, she looked down at the sniveling wretch that Jashin had become, a disappointed frown on her face. "You broke faster than I thought. You really are just a parasite, too weak to rely on your own power." Jashin was curled into a ball, obviously traumatized by whatever the redhead had done to him.

"You are going to do as I say, do you understand me?" She said evenly, leaving no room in her tone for argument. Jashin nodded feverishly to the demonic woman. "You are going to leave back to your amulet and never return into my son's mind or body. You are only allowed to leave, and let me emphasize _only_, when the amulet leaves his possession. If I catch you back in here, I will make you _wish _that I could kill you. The last few days will seem like child's play."

Without saying anything, the demon immediately disappeared into the ground, his corrupt presence gone from the mindscape. Kushina smiled to herself and sat in a chair that appeared beneath her. As she let out a sigh of relief, another presence appeared next to her. "Okaa-sama?" Kushina turned to the voice to see Shiyore's adult form and smiled to her, though it was obviously strained.

"He won't be back here ever. I made sure of it. That does not mean Naruto is uninfluenced by that… thing's presence, however. Can you feel it?" Shiyore gave a curt nod. "The amulet is increasing the Yin concentration of Naruto's chakra. It is all I can do to keep the Yin and Yang balanced evenly with my own chakra, but we will need to find a way to get rid of the amulet."

"Okaa-sama, we could just tell Naruto-nii about it. If you tell him that the amulet is worsening your condition then he will surely rid himself of it." Kushina looked to her 'second born' child and nodded. It was the best plan she could think of without manipulating her son, which is something she did not want to do.

"When he comes tonight I will tell him and have him get rid of it at the first opportunity that presents itself. If there is a shrine in the next village they visit it will be for the best." Shiyore nodded in assent, agreeing whole-heartedly.

**[Umi no Kuni]**

"I think it is time for you to learn the Chakra Strand." Sasori explained to his student as they sat across from each other in an enclosed grove, the smell of the salty sea air wafting towards them on the wind, signifying their proximity to the coast of the island country they were currently on. They had taken a boat from Oni no Kuni to get here that lasted two days and solid land was a welcome change for the two.

Naruto nodded to his sensei, staying quiet. Sasori had told him that after he was able to properly use all three of the C-rank jutsu he was given that he would be taught how to use the chakra strands. He had practiced day in and day out whenever the opportunity presented itself to be able to use all three of them and he had finally proven himself worthy to his master in yesterday's training session as they traveled from the dock they landed at.

"The Chakra Strand is a rather simple technique to learn, though learning its various functions is much more complex. There have been many different utilities of the technique aside from puppetry and I intend to teach you all of them as a way to give you better control and understanding of its functionality. You have already felt the way I mold my chakra when I form the strings many, many times before so I know you understand how they are formed. Let us see if you can perform it from memory."

Naruto widened his eyes at the command but nodded. Closing his eyes, he sought the memories of Sasori molding his chakra to form the strings and held out his index finger, manipulating his own inner energy to try and mimic it. The chakra flowed through his hand up to his knuckle, where he carefully kneaded the energy. As it flowed through his finger, Naruto made sure that the chakra was perfectly held together in the shape of a string before pushing it out of his index finger. As it did, instead of the light-blue chakra that he was used to seeing from Sasori, Naruto was surprised to see his string was a very light shade of purple.

"Interesting… I thought something like this might happen." Sasori spoke, surprising Naruto as he looked at the puppet master. "Looking at the previous techniques you've utilized it became apparent that you were letting some of the Kyuubi's youki slip through. Your genjutsu are more potent than someone else of comparative talent, your seals are more controlled but it was most obvious in your ninjutsu. Your transformations are solid, your replacement releases black smoke instead of white, your water is so dark it's almost purple, your lightning is red and your earth appears to be almost liquid, as if there is large amounts of heat mixed in, but not enough to liquefy it. The Kyuubi's potent and corrupt chakra is mixed in your own chakra, even without you doing anything."

Naruto looked at his chakra string that floated in midair as he channeled chakra into it and frowned. "Will I not be able to be a puppet-user?" He asked, hopelessness deep in his voice. Sasori chuckled at that and shook his head.

"Of course you can be. This will not prevent you from using puppets. Your mother was able to use this principle to wrap her kunai in her devastating chakra and burn through anything that was not infused with her chakra. It seems that the non-elemental version of this… tainted chakra does not affect inanimate objects if I recall correctly. You will not be able to use wooden puppets but metal puppets and human puppets, if properly reinforced with the right seals, should be no problem to utilize until you can learn to dilute the youki from your chakra."

Naruto nodded as he focused on his chakra and held out his middle finger, slowly forming a second, violet string though the strain of focusing on just those two was obvious when Sasori looked at his student. "Start with one in each hand for now, Naruto." Sasori told the boy, gaining his attention. "Attach each one to a kunai and practice moving them and getting an idea of how they react to your movements. After you become more accustomed I will begin to show you how to properly use them and we will move on to more strings and more complex movements until you can utilize one on each of your fingers. Only then will I give you your first puppet."

At the mention of being able to finally receive his first puppet, Naruto grinned and nodded his head. He pulled two kunai from his Void Storage and began working on the exercise with vigor. Soon he would be able to start on his way to make his parents proud of him… he would be the best puppet master in the world!

**[Umigakure no Sato]**

As the student-sensei duo passed by the gates of the Hidden Sea Village, Sasori glanced at his student. "I need to find my contact here. You may do as you wish until you feel me leaving." Naruto nodded, already used to this sort of thing. Sasori preferred to keep the identities of his network hidden and until he was sure Naruto could properly defend himself from interrogation techniques then it was best that he knew very little about who was in the network.

With that in mind, Naruto walked the opposite way of Sasori and pondered where he should spend his time. Looking out in the distance he could see the sea so smiled to himself and decided to head in that direction. As he did he noted that there was a beach within the village and saw only one other person there on its sandy shores.

She seemed to be a few years older than him with long, purple hair tied in two tails. Approaching the girl out of curiosity, he saw bandages on several parts of her body though the redhead could not sense any injuries through her chakra. "Hello." He greeted her.

The girl turned her head to see him as the two now stood on the beach, her pupil-less, black eyes taking in his form as she stood tensely, obviously guarded. He could feel something in her chakra that he knew was distrust from experience in sensing. "Who are you?" She asked him sharply. Naruto looked at her curiously before turning his head back towards the sea, watching the waves crash.

"Should I tell you?" He wondered. "I'm a traveler. I won't be in the village long so I'm not sure it really matters…" Shaking his head, he chuckled. "If you won't trust me with your name then it's not okay to trust you with my own, but you can call me Arashi if you want." He told her. "Why are you out here?" He asked the girl.

The bandaged girl watched him curiously. "I'm watching the ships that come in and out." She told him. "Why do you care?" Naruto hummed to himself.

"Are you waiting for someone?" He wondered. The spike in her chakra told him everything. "So… who is it that you're expecting to come on a boat?" The girl sighed, looking at the ocean.

"My father left on a boat a long time ago on a mission and never returned… The boat was part of the village's Navy and was lost at sea. My mother quit as a kunoichi shortly afterwards and became sick before dying. I want to find my father… I was very young when it happened and never knew much about him. The villagers refuse to tell me anything and hate me anyways, so I just have to do it myself. I have to watch and wait..."

Naruto frowned. "Why don't you become a ninja and go find him?" Naruto asked the girl who looked at him as if he was mad. "So what if the villagers hate you? You can read, right? Teach yourself how to become a ninja and if the village won't accept you, find someone who will. My sensei isn't from the village I was born in but I'm still following him and learning from him. Both of my parents are dead and I wanted to find out about them and make them proud, so I left my village. I'm becoming stronger and stronger every day and I know that if I keep working at it… I will become strong enough to make them proud."

The girl looked down at the sand with that thought in mind. "Isaribi…" Naruto looked at her curiously. The girl looked back at him, holding out her hand. "My name is Isaribi." He grinned to her and shook her hand.

"I'm Naruto. I'm glad that you trusted me enough to give me your name." Isaribi nodded.

"Do you really think I can find my father if I become a kunoichi?" Naruto nodded.

"If I didn't, then I would have to give up trying to learn from my sensei." He explained to her. "Just learn what you can on your own and try to find someone who will apprentice you, even if you have to leave the village to do it." Isaribi nodded, smiling.

"I'll find my tou-san… I have to." Naruto pondered for a moment before grinning and looking at the girl. "What?"

"Let's promise each other. We'll work as hard as we can to achieve our dreams." Isaribi paused a moment before nodding curtly. "Great! I have to go now, but hopefully we'll meet again someday, Isaribi-san. I really hope you succeed." Isaribi nodded and waved to Naruto as he walked away. The girl watched as he receded and resolved herself. She would go to the library tonight when no one else was there and teach herself. _I'm going to find you… I'll get strong and escape that mad scientist with the power he gave me… and then I'll find you._

**[With Sasori]**

Sasori made his way through the streets after Naruto separated from him. He walked through a part of town that seemed to be reserved for the upper class until he felt someone begin to walk next him. The woman had long, red hair that was kept from her face with a white band and dark eyes. She was wearing a sleeveless, purple kimono blouse with an obi around her waist and a short white skirt and, oddly, nothing on her feet. "What have you found out, Honoka?"

The woman, Honoka was silent a moment before she spoke. "Orochimaru has been spotted here. Children and teenagers have gone missing. There is also a building on one of the smaller islands that was not there a few months ago. Any time someone sets foot on it, they disappear. The events are probably connected… The only one of the children to return after disappearing is hated by the village and hates everyone back, so it would be hard to get information from her about what happened."

"What of the authorities? Have they started investigating?"

"No… I am inclined to believe that Orochimaru has made a deal with the village leader and the Daimyo for they have not done anything to find the missing individuals. It is very suspect." Sasori was silent for a moment.

"Befriend her." Honoka looked at him strangely. "Get to know the girl and find out what exactly happened when she was taken. Do whatever it takes. Contact me when you find out and I will return. Then we will decide on something to do. Anything involving Orochimaru is worth looking into and if it is somehow detrimental to any of my plans than I will have to step in." Honoka nodded her head.

"I understand, Sasori-sama. It will be as you command." Sasori nodded.

"I will take my leave then… I have further business elsewhere. Do not take unneeded risks. Keep yourself and the girl from the island if possible. I do not wish to lose valuable pieces." Honoka nodded before the two walked away from each other.

**[Konohagakure, Hokage's Office – Three Weeks Later]**

"I am sorry for your loss, Sana-dono. Your father was a great man." Sarutobi spoke solemnly from his seat. "I also thank you for coming in the stead of Kazangakure village leader due to the unfortunate circumstances involving his demise." Sitting in her own seat in his office was the Demon Daimyo, Mao Sana.

Sana sat with her legs crossed in a red dress with a large, white obi around her waist tied in a large bow behind her back. Atop her head sat the Mao Crown, an intricate circlet of dark red gold with a large ruby in the very center cut to appear as if it was a demonic eye and two horns atop the crown itself made of black sapphire. She let her lips quirk into a small smile as she looked at the man. "Thank you, Hokage-dono. I will do my utmost to keep my father's legacy."

Sana took a small sip of tea from the cup she held in her hand while the Hokage nodded his head. "As for the alliance that Kazangakure and Konohagakure as well as the two countries previously held…" Hiruzen began, trailing off slightly at the end. Sana lowered her cup as she met the old man's eyes, remembering her orders from Sasori-sama. The serious look in the young woman's eyes set Hiruzen a little on edge, if he were to be honest.

"I would like to dissolve the military alliance between our two nations and instead set up a non-aggression pact between the two villages, at least until a new village leader is in place who has more experience in matters of military strategy and the benefits such an agreement would allow for our nation." She spoke calmly and Hiruzen had to breathe deeply in order to keep his cool. An alliance with the closest village to Kirigakure was strategically in place in case of another war… If they lost that ally with Uzushio being gone as well, then there would be absolutely no aid from the east should the Kirigakure Navy strike.

"Surely you can reconsider, Sana-dono…" Hiruzen tried to say only for Sana to hold up her hand, a slight smile in place. "Sana-dono?"

"Unfortunately I cannot. With the murder of both my father and the village leader, I absolutely cannot allow any risk to the people of my nation. Kazangakure is currently attempting to choose a new village leader and until then, the village is under my temporary guidance. When my volcano's general is gone, the Demon Lord must keep all safe and calm. I will not attack your village, it is the furthest from my mind, Hokage-dono.

"Unfortunately, I will have to cut off ties from the Land of Fire until all is sorted out. Do not think this is biased, my country has already cut off ties from our other connections on the mainland and we are currently only involving ourselves with the nations on our own island continent. This is to better protect the interests of my people."

Hiruzen looked at the Demon Daimyo and had to hold his tongue. He very much wanted to say many things to this woman… but this was an issue that he had to deal with carefully. While they were only a minor village, the Chuunin forces of Kazangakure were strong and whenever a Jounin was promoted from among them, they were able to take on Jounin of even the Great Villages. Despite the comparatively small pool of shinobi in Kazangakure, they set their standards high, higher than any village besides Konoha and Kumo, even.

That was why they were a reliable ally. There were also bloodlines and clan techniques within the volcanic village that made them envied around the Elemental Nations, though capturing a ninja with them was extremely difficult given that the village itself could only be visited by certain individuals unless you wore a special seal on your clothing. If any rules were broken… the seal would break and the perpetrator would suffer immensely.

"I hope you can understand the reasons as to why I cannot allow my village to continue its alliance past my father's death. Do not worry though, after the safety of my country is found to be acceptable by myself and whomever the new village leader are, then we shall approach you with intent to bring about discussions." Seeing there was still a little resistance in the man's eyes, Sana smiled sweetly.

"I have already reached an agreement with your Daimyo regarding our trade agreements, so everything will be final." Hiruzen widened his eyes at that statement. If the Daimyo had already rescinded the agreements… there was little he could do without seeming desperate and staining the image of Konoha. With Naruto gone, they had to give off the illusion they were still proud and strong… so he nodded.

"Of course I understand, Sana-dono. I wish you a safe trip back to Makai." Sana smiled at his statement, her eyes twinkling with enthusiasm as she rose, tilting her head slightly in respect towards him.

"Of course, thank you, Hokage-dono. Please have a wonderful afternoon." She spoke cordially before gracefully walking out of the Office where her guards were waiting. As she opened the door, she took one last look at the Hokage and smirked to herself.

_ Sasori-sama… it is just as you said would happen. I wonder what you're planning with making Konoha weaker like this… just who is it that you will bring power to with all of these machinations? I'm sure it has to do with that apprentice of yours, but I just can't quite place my finger on it… this will certainly be fun to watch if you're pulling all the strings though. _

And it was that thought that kept the smile on her face even as she made her way down the Tower and readied herself to leave the village. There was no reason to remain any longer than need be… after all, her master still had more things for her to do and she would make him proud no matter what consequences befell her or her kingdom.

_ Because I truly love you, Sasori-sama… and someday, I know, you will return my feelings if I continue to do as you wish._

**[Tetsu no Kuni]**

"Mifune-sama!" The gray-haired samurai leader of Tetsu no Kuni looked up from the scroll he was reading as a messenger entered his office and bowed deeply. "You have received a message from someone who claims it is from Akasuna no Sasori." Mifune calmly rolled up his scroll and stood, placing it on a rack. "Mifune-sama?" He then turned to the messenger who entered his office with a sigh.

"Does anyone else know?" The messenger shook his head, which caused Mifune to nod. He held out his hand for the scroll and received it quickly as the messenger immediately left the office, leaving him to whatever it entailed. The old swordsman opened the scroll slowly. _You have not contacted me in quite some time… _He thought to himself. _I would say only three times since you saved me in the Second Shinobi World War… Why now of all times?_

The answer was clear as he began to read.

_Mifune,_

_ I know you are busy and I am too, so I shall keep my message short and concise. I have need of you to teach my apprentice Kenichi's style. I will be in Tetsu no Kuni within the next month and pay you a visit, so I urge you to come to a decision within that time. The favor I am asking may seem as if I am overstepping my boundaries, but he is the grandson of Kenichi, the son of your niece, Kushina. I am currently teaching him the ways of puppetry and as of now he has little skill in close combat so I would very much appreciate it if you could teach him basic kenjutsu at the very least. Consider this as a way to finally repay your debt to me._

_Sasori _

Mifune walked slowly to a candle on his desk and held the scroll over the flame, watching as the paper became black ashes before tossing the ends of the scroll into the wastebin he kept next to his desk, the ashes swept in shortly after. He then sat down and began to contemplate the message quietly. _Sasori is not one to lie directly, nor to be taken by flights of fancy. I suppose that if he can prove the boy's heritage then I will gladly pass on Kenichi's weapon and style… even if not it would not hurt to teach him how to use a blade effectively. I will help you, Sasori… you've earned that much at least._

**[Kawa no Kuni]**

"Is this it, Sasori-sensei?" Naruto asked as the master and student pair stood in front of what appeared to be a simple cabin made out of wood, likely only large enough for three rooms and a bathroom. It was two floors high based on the placements of windows with a chimney rising from the roof, though no smoke was present. "Is this where we'll be staying?"

The older redhead nodded. "Yes, this is one of my bases. With the proximity that Kawa no Kuni has to Hi no Kuni, Tsuchi no Kuni, Tetsu no Kuni and Kaze no Kuni, it is a good location to rest. If I get a message from any of those four countries and need to leave, I am in a good place to leave towards my spies there. Of course, if I receive a message from anywhere off coast or on the eastern side of the mainland, it proves a problem. I shouldn't have any problems however as the only reply I'm expecting any time soon is over here in the western side."

Naruto was half-listening to his master, but his sensory abilities were demanding the other half of his focus. They were pointing directly to the cabin… "Sasori-sensei, are there seals on your base?" He asked. "I can feel very small signatures throughout the interior but it's hard to pinpoint them… the space feels… strange inside. Why is that?" Sasori chuckled at the description. He had thought something like this would happen.

"Space-time seals would be the answer you're looking for. I cannot use teleportation seals like your father but I am still rather skilled in other areas of the discipline. There are Distortion Seals along the interior of the house that increase the area within the base so that it is much larger than the outside. There is about five times as much space within the house on its first and second floor than outside and a basement below the house that spans an area past the treeline." He explained. Naruto's eyes widened at that statement.

_ "I bet you didn't know seals could do _that _eh, onii-chan?" _Shiyore gloated to her half-brother, to which he nodded. Sasori thought the boy was nodding to him in understanding.

"I will be busy preparing some things for our stay here, so why don't you work on your training until I get back? There is a barrier seal around the property that will alert me if anyone comes close and your sensory abilities would also be able to detect them beforehand anyways, so you'll be safe." Naruto nodded once as his master disappeared inside the building before deciding it would be good to start with some Fuinjutsu before moving on to chakra strands.

**[2 hours later]**

Looking at the floor around him, Naruto noted several holes in the ground, puddles and gouges in the dirt as well as steel ninja tools littered the ground in the dozens. His Void Storage disappeared from the air and he focused the chakra in his fingers. Within two seconds, purple strings materialized from each of his fingers and shot forward, attaching themselves to ten of the kunai on the floor.

Pulling them back to him, he could see that each of the kunai had a very light purple aura around them and it was possibly to see a bit of heat haze rising from them. Pushing the chakra in his right hand, he watched as the five kunai he had connected by strands in that hand shot as if he had thrown them. Pulling his hand back, he watched as they began to curve towards the left and embedded themselves into a tree.

Quickly pulling them out as steam began to rise from the tree, Naruto dropped the kunai in his hands and performed a few quick handseals. **"Suiton: Mizurappa!" **He shouted, forming a circle with his thumb and forefinger as he spat out a concentrated stream of pressurized dark blue water to cool down the tree before it caught flame.

Sighing in relief, he lowered his hand. _"Well, at least your reflexes are improving." _Shiyore commented in her adult form. _"That one didn't even catch fire. That's definite improvement from all those trees you killed on the way to the base… Sasori was probably getting tired of putting them out. Still, it's great training for your chakra strands, reflexes and Suiton all at once, so at least there's some silver lining."_

"It is fortunate I did not have to put that one out." Naruto turned quickly, seeing his master standing there with a scroll in hand. He was looking at the damage to the grassy floor around his cabin, the burn mark in the tree and the various ninja tools scattered all over the floor with analytic eyes. "You are definitely improving though, I will give you that much. The destructive power of your Energy Matrix seal is increasing every day. Your chakra strand training is flowing well on top of that. With your constant practice you can create and sustain ten strings. I believe it is time for your first puppet. With the corrosive nature of your strings, I cannot grant you a wooden puppet however, so I will warn you now: the one I am about to give you will take some time to master simply because it is not meant for a novice such as yourself."

"I understand, Sasori-sensei but I will do my best." Naruto replied, nothing but determination in his eyes as he looked at his master. "I know that my chakra makes it harder for me to learn certain things but I will not disappoint you." Sasori nodded and handed Naruto the scroll he held. Looking at the puppet master, he motioned for his apprentice to unseal what was inside. In a cloud of smoke, the puppet was revealed.

It was jet black and appeared to be a scorpion. Its tail was twice as long as Naruto was tall with a dangerous barb on its tip that was larger than Naruto's own head. Its body was thick and long enough for three full grown men to ride atop it and segmented. The six legs on its abdomen were segmented and sharp at the bottom, which were obviously meant to be used as a way to climb over any terrain. Its front arms thickened into claws that he could tell were razor sharp and then drew to a point that would be useful for digging. Its head was directly attached to the abdomen with a dozen eyes. Fangs and several small, arm-like appendages protruded from its mouth. "This is Koutei, one of the first metal puppets that I created."

"Koutei… It looks really dangerous." Naruto commented as he touched its back, his hand moving over the grooves in the segments, feeling the cold steel of the scorpion's body. "It looks like there's a lot of moving parts here, sensei. The metal won't be deteriorate, will it?"

"No, this puppet was made to endure high pressure and extreme temperatures in both directions so you will not have to worry about your chakra negatively affecting the materials. Of course, you are free to enhance it with seals if you are still cautious. You will need to learn the correct seals before you can do that however, but that should have been rather obvious I believe. I will first help you learn how to move each individual part of this puppet and then how to use the parts in conjunction for different purposes over the next few weeks as I await the responses from my spy network on various problems. During those weeks we will focus mainly on you learning how to control Koutei to an acceptable level, though I expect you to still work on your other skills in your free time, is that understood?"

"Hai, Sasori-sensei!"


	8. Chapter VIII

**l****Red Sands**

**Chapter VIII**

**[Koutetsu, Capital of Tetsu no Kuni] **

"This is the capital city of Iron Country?" Naruto asked Sasori as they walked down a busy street with shops lining either side of the road. People – samurai, merchants and civilians – lined the wide avenue as well as the odd carriage that carried a noble or the goods that one shop or another that was either importing or exporting. The one thing that nearly everyone on the street had in common was some sort of weapon on their person, whether it was a blade of some length, a kanabo or some other means of protection. "Is it a dangerous place? Why is everyone carrying a weapon?"

"Koutetsu is a very safe city. You need not worry about being attacked. No, it is a sign of strength here to be able to wield a weapon of some sort, with blades being a sign of finesse and objects such as kanabo being more for those wanting to be seen as a brute. The weapon you carry is very important in Iron Country. The very highest honor that can be derived from skill with a weapon is a wielder of a katana and wakizashi, as the samurai do."

He nodded at what the puppet master spoke, taking Sasori's word. His vision then was drawn to a large building atop the highest point of the city, which he assumed was where they were heading. It stood three floor high with a very traditional Japanese aesthetic, a stone wall surrounding the property and guarded at the gates by two men in samurai armor, a katana on their backs and a wakizashi at their hip.

As they walked up the hill's path, right to the mansion, Sasori was given deep bows by the two guards and let through without any resistance. Past the gates, there was a cobblestone walkway that led to a set of stairs leading up to the mansion. Waiting at the base of those steps was a boy who bowed at the waist when the two redheaded puppeteers arrived.

"Sasori-sama, Mifune-sama is expecting you. If you will follow me, I will lead the two of you to him." He turned and began walking up the stairs. Sasori followed without question, Naruto right behind him.

"Who is Mifune-san, sensei?" Naruto asked curiously. The puppet master turned to the apprentice and smiled a little before explaining.

"Mifune is the general of Tetsu no Kuni's military. Unlike the Great Five Nations and the nations with minor hidden villages, Tetsu no Kuni houses a very extensive, very skilled military that is exclusively samurai, not a single shinobi aside from those whom work independently for the nobles of the country. Mifune himself is an extremely adept swordmaster who went toe to toe with Hanzo the Salamander and survived. I'm hoping that I can convince him to teach you the style of your mother's father."

As Sasori finished that statement, the boy stopped in front of a sliding door, bowing and then leaving the duo. The puppet master knocked upon the wood frame of the door, waiting for the invitation to enter, which came not a moment later. Opening it, he then led Naruto within before closing the door behind them. There was only one person in the room, a man who appeared to be at least sixty years old. He was wrinkled around his large nose and wore bandages around the top of his head all the way down to just above his black eyes. His grey hair swept down his back and he wore a pointed beard as well as a thin moustache that hung off of his face past his chin. He wore a purple haori with a white trimming tied by an obi, his katana and wakizashi on the floor beside him where he sat.

As they entered, the man stood and walked to them. "Welcome Sasori-dono. It has been some time since you've visited Koutetsu." The two gave slight nods to one another, showing their mutual respect. The grey-haired man then turned his line of vision to Naruto and smiled. "And you must be the apprentice that Sasori wrote of in his letter.

Naruto considered the respect that Sasori had for this man and bowed his head, though not too deeply. "I am Uzumaki Naruto." He introduced himself politely.

"Hm… I am Mifune, Naruto-san." The man introduced himself in kind. "Sasori tells me you are descended of Kenichi. I would like to teach you his style, but I made a promise to Kenichi I would teach his style and grant his weapon to his heir. Is there any way you can prove that you are?" Naruto tilted his head. Kenichi was the name of his maternal grandfather, so how could he prove that?

"_Onii-chan!" _Naruto saw Shiyore materialize in front of him and grinned widely. _"Show him my seal! Since Kenichi was kaa-chan's father and kaa-chan was the Kyuubi jinchuuriki and she was the only Uzumaki in Konoha, then that should be proof enough, right?" _Naruto widened his eyes at that information and nodded.

Naruto grabbed the hem of his shirt and channeled chakra to his stomach, lifting his shirt as Mifune and Sasori watched. "This is the only way I can think of to prove it." He explained as his Shiki Fujin showed itself on his abdomen. "It's the seal that holds back the Kyuubi no Kitsune within me, a burden that I shared with my kaa-chan." Mifune's eyes widened as he knelt down, looking at the seal. He was no Fuinjutsu master but Kenichi had taught him some of the practice, the theory of it anyways.

Mifune stood, after which Naruto let his shirt go, and nodded to himself. "Alright, Sasori-dono. I will accept this as proof. Please call me Mifune-sensei from now on, nephew." Naruto widened his eyes at what the samurai called him. Noting the surprise, Mifune smiled a bit. "Oh? I suppose that Sasori-dono didn't tell you then. I was your grandfather's brother. That's why I wouldn't teach you Kenichi's style unless you could prove you were his direct descendant." He then turned to the puppet master. "I will have someone get you two for dinner, but for now please relax in your usual room, Sasori-dono." Sasori nodded, motioning Naruto to follow before the two redheads left Mifune on his own once more.

**[Next Day, Mifune's armory] **

The blonde couldn't help but be amazed as Mifune led him through a room dedicated to several dozen weapons, bladed and blunt. He could sense the power radiating off of them, residual chakra from their former owners. He imagined that this was the final resting place for the weaponry wielded by Mifune's family until the next member of the clan came to pick it up. "This is amazing…" He breathed out.

The samurai chuckled. "Yes, that is usually the first reaction of children that come in the first time. This is my family's armory, holding the weapons of our clan either forged with blood, sweat and tears by their wielders or gained as trophies of battle from worthy opponents." Lightly stroking a katana that hung on one wall, Mifune seemed to be lost in reminiscence. "These weapons could tell you the most amazing stories of their owners. Blades are like that, more than mere tools. They are more like trusted companions than just a weapon of blood and steel."

Naruto nodded, thinking on what the man said, though not really understanding. "Ah, you are young. You will understand it soon enough however." Leading the boy further into the room, the man grasped a very particular staff made of black steel and handed it to the boy. It was a full six feet long, meant for an adult. On either end of the staff there were seals inscribed as well as seals along the staff itself running its entire length. As soon as he grasped it, Naruto watched as it shrunk to just six inches taller than him.

Instinctually, the boy channeled chakra into it and watched in amazement as blades made of the unique purple chakra-yokai mix he channeled appeared from either end, changing bo to a twin-sided naginata. Focusing, he channeled his chakra so that it only traveled to the seal atop the staff, creating a normal naginata. Mifune smiled and nodded. "It seems to be working properly. Given you are not experiencing pain, I will also assume that you are the legitimate heir of my brother. The… effects of my sister-in-law's seals, while amusing to watch on those who think they are entitled to that which is not theirs, is unpleasant for the participant to say the least."

"Um… did someone try to take my ojii-sama's staff before?" He wondered, to which Mifune simply smiled. "On second thought… I don't think I want to know." The samurai nodded before motioning the blonde to follow him out.

"Now that you have Higosha, let us begin our training." Naruto nodded as he grabbed his heirloom, Higosha, and followed his new sensei.

**[Umigakure] **

Back on the coasts of Sea Country, one might find Isaribi. In the time since she had spoken with Naruto she had certainly kept busy. It might not look like it to the outside observer given she appeared to just be drawing in the sand with a stick, though. Even that was her working at improving herself. To the casual passerby, she might seem bored and just moving it around in random shapes. To a shinobi, they'd think she was up to no good given the intent focus she was using as she drew in the sand – that wasn't really any different to how the shinobi treated her usually though. To a veteran, they might think the girl had taken up a particular shinobi art before waving it away given the girl hadn't even gone a day to the Academy. To an Uzumaki, they'd immediately recognize the sealwork she was practicing. To Uzumaki Honoka, who was three of those things in addition to the girl's new sensei, Isaribi was sloppy and slow at learning, but still made progress. Sasori-sama had given her an order, so she would follow it. The girl was intriguing, nonetheless.

Isaribi looked down at the kanji for _Water _she was working on and the many symbols around it. She hadn't been taught much in the way of fighting since Naruto left, but she _had _been learning a lot from her new sensei. A few days after the redhead had left, Honoka had introduced herself. Apparently, she had noticed how Isaribi had been showing up at the training grounds after the shinobi left and taken their discarded weapons. The woman had seen how she tried to become a competent weapon user and even watched other shinobi's spars as a way to try and learn through osmosis.

Honoka had then proceeded to offer to help the girl train. Isaribi never asked why the woman wanted to help and – if she were honest – she didn't care. She was just glad that she didn't have to keep teaching herself things from books she _borrowed _from the library. Even though it had only been a few weeks, Isaribi could _feel _the difference in her strength. The seals that Honoka had her draw every day were only part of her training. The constant exercise she did helped improve her body – which was already stronger than anyone else her age thanks to that insane snake of a man – and she knew she wasn't even close to her potential in that department. Honoka had also taught her how to use chakra to walk on walls and had promised to teach her how to walk on water soon. There was no ninjutsu or genjutsu so far, but Isaribi knew this was a long process. She needed to wait and that was just fine with her. If she could see parts of her progress, she couldn't imagine what else there was she wasn't seeing.

"Isaribi, stop." The bluenette halted the movements of her stick and turned to look at Honoka. At her signal, Isaribi walked over to the Uzumaki. "You let your mind wander, didn't you? I told you that you must have the utmost focus when using seals." Isaribi looked at the ground. Honoka's voice was nearly devoid of emotions and didn't change tone, but the girl still knew that she was upset. Even disregarding her words, Isaribi had picked up small tells that helped her figure out the woman's emotional state given she didn't show it on her face or in her tone. "Give me the stick." Isaribi complied and watched as Honoka coated it with her chakra and threw it with unerring accuracy like some sort of javelin. As it hit Isaribi's work, the experiment stepped back in shock.

What was supposed to be a seal that dowsed for water under it had, instead, become a geyser of sea water that shot into the air with enough pressure that an airborne gull flying overhead _exploded_. Honoka looked at the girl even feathers and a small amount of blood rained from the sky. "One mistake, one misalignment, one misstroke and a seal will be completely different than you anticipate. You must be extremely careful when you work with them and you must ensure you are using complete focus. Do you understand?"

Swallowing the lump in her throat – and a bit of bile that had showed up as well – Isaribi nodded. "Yes, sensei. I'll be more careful from now on."

**[Koutetsu]**

Mifune was quiet with his hands behind his back as he watched his nephew practice a kata from Kenichi's personal style. The Uzumaki bloodline was always interesting to watch. It really did seem unfair for someone to pick up skills more quickly because someone else had mastered them, but given this was the last heir to his younger brother Mifune was actually grateful. It would mean that Naruto would be able to protect himself that much quicker.

Naruto had been training the last few weeks with Higosha and had progressed very well. Each exercise, each kata, each lesson was taken with the utmost focus and Naruto took to it like he was simply remembering something he once knew before. As Naruto finished one of the kata with a forward jab followed by a skyward slash of the purple naginata blade attached to his polearm, Mifune signaled him to come before him. When the child arrived, the elder looked upon him.

"Your training is moving along very well, Naruto-chan." He remarked. "I think its time we saw how far along you've come along. How do you feel about sparring with one of the students from our Academy?" Naruto looked at Higosha and then back at Mifune with a grin.

"Sure thing, oji-san. When should I expect to do it?" Mifune smiled at his student's enthusiasm.

"I'll have it set up for later today."

**[Naruto's Mindscape]**

After Mifune left, Naruto had begun meditating as a way of entering his mindscape. As the calm training ground disappeared, it was soon replaced with the familiar throne room. He noted that ever since his first time here, the entrance to his mindscape had changed. The throne above the chamber was still there, but now the walls were made of red bricks. Torches hung around the circular room to illuminate the room with a warm, orange glow. In addition, he noted that the throne he sat in was raised above the rest of the are on a dais. The dais itself was atop the top layer of the room, the circular edge around the wall that looked down upon the center. Down the stairs and on the lower section of the room, a single, black scorpion the size of a small dog scuttled around; a fox about the same size slept on the other side of the room, curled into a ball.

As Naruto stood and walked down the stairs, the fox looked up at him before shifting its form into Shiyore. "Hello, onii-chan!" The child exclaimed as Naruto reached the lower floor. He smiled at her as she hugged him. Patting her head, Naruto waited for her to separate before leading her out of the chamber through one of the halls branching out of the chamber. "How was your day, onii-chan?"

Naruto thought a moment before speaking. "I think it was pretty good. Mifune-oji has been training me more and Higosha feels like its moving more smoothly to me." Shiyore nodded as they reached Kushina's chamber. Moving deftly through the chains based on memory, the two children reached their mother.

"Welcome back, Naruto-chan!" Kushina greeted as he rushed to her and gave her a hug. Shiyore followed behind him, her form shifting into that of her adult self. "Are you doing alright?" Naruto nodded fervently.

"Oji-san said he's going to let me spar today after seeing how far I'm progressing with Higosha!" Kushina smiled and ruffled his spikes.

"I'm so proud of how far you're coming along, Naruto-chan." After a moment, the woman added something else. "I'll tell you what. If you can win, I'll teach you how to use my chains, how does that sound?" Naruto's purple orbs lit up at the suggestion and he wrapped his mother in another hug.

"Thank you, okaa-chan!" He exclaimed. "I'll make sure to make you proud!" Kushina just smiled and laid a hand on his head.

"You already have, Naruto-chan…" She whispered and hugged him back.

**[Mifune's Dojo] **

Prior to the spar beginning, Naruto found himself settling into a stance with Higosha in both hands, purple chakra blade pointed at his opponent. While Naruto was dressed in his usual blue yukata with red obi, his opponent wore a white gi. A few years older than Naruto, Yamashi stood a full foot higher with a ponytail of brown hair, green eyes and was wielding a bokken wrapped in its own chakra shell. He also held his weapon in both hands, pointed at Naruto. Mifune stood between the two and glanced from one to the other to assess their readiness. When he was content, he raised his hand. "On my signal, you shall begin. The match is over when one forfeits, is knocked unconscious or if I call the match to prevent permanent injury. Do both of you understand the rules as I've explained them?" When both of them nodded, Mifune stepped back and waved his hand down.

Knowing he was likely at a size disadvantage, Naruto channeled chakra to his legs and took off in a burst of speed. Unfortunately for him, his opponent was quick enough to react in time and parried his naginata. Yamashi was silent and stoic as he thrusted forward with his bokken. With his weapon spread wide, Naruto let go of it and rolled under the boy to dodge. Pulling Higosha back to him with chakra strands, he went to slam the butt of the polearm into Yamashi's back.

Yamashi, being more experienced in terms of bukijutsu, sidestepped the attack on instinct and came around in a pivot slash aimed for Naruto's head. Ducking under the blow, he jumped back and looked at his opponent, waiting for the next move. Being aggressive hadn't got him anywhere against the more skilled opponent. It was time to fall back into Sasori's teaching: observe, plot and counter. All he needed was to figure out what Yamashi was weak to and he could win.

Yamashi looked at him, sizing him up but still remained silent. Taking another stance, the boy held his bokken in both hands and pointed low to the ground. In a burst of speed even faster than what Naruto had used before, the ronin in training began a flurry of attacks that Naruto only evaded due to all the reflex training Sasori had forced upon him. He had never been more grateful to have Koutei firing poison-laced needles at him many times a week as he was just then. As Yamashi went for a high swing, Naruto rolled under the strike and slashed with his own naginata. The older boy transitioned his swing into a block, locking the chakra shells in a clash of strength. As the Uzumaki felt his arms giving way, he pushed Yang chakra through his tenketsu in both his arms and legs. Pushing forward, he saw Yamashi losing ground ever so slightly. Feeling Yamashi's chakra moving through his feet, he pulled back on the force in time to catch himself when the boy jumped back. Naginata and bokken were pointed at one another as the two combatants watched the other for any movement.

Yamashi rushed forward once more, but Naruto thrust forward with the blade of his polearm. The boy was forced to alter his path and tried to flank the younger boy only to find a second naginata blade in his way when Naruto funneled chakra into both sides. Facing Yamashi as he flourished his weapon, the redhead eyed his older opponent. He thought he finally understood his opponent's style. He was funneling a majority of his chakra into the bokken which left him unable to utilize any enhancements to his legs. When he moved, the chakra in his bokken was momentarily funneled to his legs, leaving him unable to enhance the strength or speed of his blows. He didn't use a shunshin to become faster than Naruto, he only enhanced his physical strength in his limbs to such a degree that it appeared that he was. In actuality, it was actually more impressive the way he was doing it. It took extremely fine-tuned chakra control to do such a thing, which allowed Naruto to narrow down what strategies might work. If he kept Yamashi at a distance, he could control the flow of combat. If he was out of range, he'd need to enhance his legs, which meant he likely wouldn't be able to parry any blows from Higosha.

From the slightly distressed look on Yamashi's face, he could tell that the boy understood that he'd figured out as well. Now all it took was for him to properly utilize this opening. While Yamashi had incredible control, he had an idea that could work. Manipulating his own chakra as he rushed forward, Naruto began to launch a series of lunges, slashes and spins of his weapon. Yamashi countered each of them with near perfect timing but Naruto continued to press his advantage until his chakra had formed exactly the way he wished.

Suddenly, Yamashi fell to his back as he lost his balance. A single stone jutted from the training ground that had tripped the boy. By sending his chakra into the earth itself, Naruto had been able to make even that small shift in the terrain. Mifune approached the duo as Naruto's blade was pointed at Yamashi's neck. "The victory belongs to Naruto. You are progressing very well, both of you, but it seems that my nephew is a bit more skilled." Naruto retracted his chakra before helping Yamashi to his feet. "Why don't you two change into something cleaner. Yamashi, if you'd like you can join us for dinner as well."

"Thank you, Mifune-sama." Yamashi finally spoke, his voice formal and cool. "I appreciate it." Both of the children left to the hot springs he had on his property to clean up the sweat they had accumulated from the fight. The samurai settled into silence as they left with a smile. _It seems that you will be truly great, Naruto. I can't wait to see how far you go._


End file.
